AND CATTLE DOCTOH. 139 



rives its name, and between which the food passes to 

 undergo a further preparation. 



The fourth and last stomach, called the maw, re- 

 sembles the pouch of a bagpipe in form, with its right 

 and smaller extremity connected with the intestine. 

 It is in this 7naw that the digestive process is comple- 

 ted — the former three being only preparatory. This 

 stomach is very capacious, being thrown into large 

 plaits or folds, from whence a peculiar fluid, called the 

 gastric juice, is secreted, which mingling with the 

 ruminated food, converts it into a substance which then 

 takes the name of chyme; this chyme is conveyed into 

 the smaller intestines, and in its passage yields the 

 nutritive principle necessary for the sustenance of the 

 animal. The fourth stomach derives, from the gastric 

 juice, the property of curdling milk ; the maw of 

 calves, when dried, is called rennet. 



The digestive process is that change which the food 

 undergoes in the four stomachs and intestines, and by 

 which a fluid is separated from it for the nourishment 

 and growth of the body. 



Grass, hay, or any other kind of food that the ani- 

 mal eats, passes directly, without much chewing, into 

 the paunch, where it is retained until a sufficient 

 quantity be collected. The food, while in the paunch, 

 mixes with a fluid secreted in this receptacle, in which 

 it is macerated, and thereby undergoes a peculiar 

 change, which destroys its texture, and converts it into 

 a pulpy mass. 



When the animal lies down to ruminate, or chew 

 the cud, as it is termed, the paunch contracts, and by 

 that action propels some of its contents into the honey- 

 comb, and from thence a portion of it is transmitted, 

 by a voluntary act of the beast, through the gullet 

 into the mouth, to be more intimately mixed with 



