M A M M A L I A. 



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mouth in order to be' chewed, or ground by the 

 lateral motion of the cheek teeth upon each other. 

 It is this returning of the food to the mouth after it 

 has been in the paunch, which is called " chewing the 

 cud ;" and the cud, or quid, which is the real mean- 

 ing of the term, is not unworthy of notice, inasmuch 

 as there is a separate organ for the preparation of it. 

 This organ is the second stomach of the animal. It 

 is called the bonnet, or the king's hood ; and it is a 

 viscus of a very peculiar structure. It is very mus- 

 cular in its walls, and the interior of it consists of 

 cells, which are larger-or smaller according to the 

 size of the animal, and the nature of the food upon 

 which it more habitually subsists. The walls of 

 these cells have the faculty of standing erect, at the 

 same time that there is a vermiform, or twist.ing 

 motion of the entire organ. By means of these cells 

 and of this motion, the food which had been taken 

 into the paunch is rolled into little pellets, which 

 pellets are one by one returned to the mouth and 

 undergo the operation of chewing ; and unless this 

 operation can be performed, and the king's hood can 

 properly prepare and return the food to the mouth of 

 the animal, that food can in nowise contribute to 

 its nourishment. From spasm, or other causes, it 

 sometimes happens, that this organ is incapable of 

 performing its function ; and when such is the case, 

 the animal will die although still able to graze and 

 convey the requisite quantity of food to the paunch. 

 An intelligent observer of cattle is well aware of this 

 peculiar species of spasm, and he is also aware that 

 there is only one means of getting the better of it. 

 It is a disease which no medicine can reach ; and if 

 he possessed only one animal, and that animal were 

 taken with it, it would have no alternative but death. 

 He therefore watches another animal of the same 

 species, and the moment that it is bringing the end or 

 quid to the mouth, he snatches it out, and transfers 

 it to the mouth of the animal which has lost the quid ; 

 and the stimulus of the warm quid so applied, rarely 

 if ever fails in restoring the animal to the complete 

 exercise of its function. 



The cells in the second stomach vary considerably 

 in their dimensions in the different orders of rumi- 

 nating animals. In those which nibble the tender 

 grass, such as the sheep, they are small ; but in those 

 which live on the branches of trees, or on coarse 

 vegetation of any kind, they are comparatively large. 

 Tliis is especially the case in the camel, which has 

 the cells of this second stomach of ample dimensions. 

 The size of these cells give origin to the ridiculous 

 story that the camel is capable of retaining in its 

 stomach a supply of water which can not only refresh 

 itself, but which is rendered available as drink to its 

 master as it traverses the burning deserts. This 

 notion has been strangely continued, even by men 

 who in recent times have got honorary names heaped 

 upon them for the supposed services which they have 

 rendered to science. Notwithstanding this, there is 

 no opinion more absurd, or more completely op- 

 posed to every principle both of chemical and 

 physiological science ; and if it were not that we 

 have a desire to be tender of the names of those whom 

 learned societies tag with letters, and upon whom kings 

 bestow knightly honours, we would say that there are 

 manyof themsheer blockheads, whoought to oe scouted 

 from the province of science as unworthy usurpers. 



After the food has been rolled into pellets by this 

 second stomach, returned to the mouth and properly 



chewed, it is carried back again to the third stomach, 

 which is termed the " manifold," because it consists of 

 parallel laminae, bearing some resemblance to the 

 leaves of a book. These are beset all over with 

 small tubercles, and this is the portion of the stomach 

 in which, and in which alone, the drink of the animal 

 mingles with its food. If, therefore, water would be 

 sought in any one portion of the digestive apparatus 

 of a ruminating animal, this is the portion in which 

 alone we could by possibility find it. There is, 

 however, no instance in which water has been met with 

 in this viscus, unless so completely mixed with the 

 aliment as that the one could not be separated from 

 the other. 



From this third stomach, the food and the drink 

 combined, and reduced to a pulp upon which the real 

 digestive process can be exercised, are conveyed to 

 the fourth or truly digestive stomach of the animal, 

 which is the only one that secretes gastric juice. 

 This stomach is in some parts of the country known 

 by the name of " the red," and in young animals of 

 the ox tribe it is used for the purpose of coagulating 

 milk in the manufacture of cheese, and gets the name 

 of the " rennet." Such are the principal digestive 

 organs of the ruminating mammalia, and in addition 

 to these their intestinal canal is very long, and pro- 

 vided with an ample caecum. 



It is not a little remarkable that these animals, 

 which are unquestionably the most useful to man of 

 the whole mammalia, should be at the same time 

 most amply provided with the means of digestion. 

 There is another circumstance connected with their 

 economy which is well worthy of attention, and that 

 is the fact that they absolutely make their own pas- 

 tures. If a heath-clad hill or a barren moor is per- 

 severingly pastured on by cattle or by sheep, it will 

 in time become a green sward of the most kindly 

 description. The droppings of the animals no doubt 

 contribute to this purpose, but there is a kindliness 

 also in the very bite of a ruminant animal which 

 appears to do good to the plant on which it feeds ; 

 there is also something peculiar in the breath and 

 the whole economy of these animals, for there is 

 nothing that tends so much to retard the progress 

 of consumption in the human subject as breathing the 

 breath of cattle, and we need hardly mention that 

 the smallpox, formerly one of the most destructive 

 diseases of the human race, has been well nigh banished 

 by the counteraction of inoculating matter originally 

 obtained from the teats of the cow. 



Indeed, in whatever light we view the ruminating 

 mammalia, they are absolutely the treasures of man 

 above all other parts of the animal creation. For ra- 

 pidity and elegance their labours are perhaps not equal 

 to those of the horse, but in patience and strength they 

 have hardly any parallel ; and among the poor it is 

 lutrdly possible to imagine a more valuable treasure 

 than is possessed in a single cow. It is also worthy 

 of remark, that nature appears to have been more 

 bountiful in the distribution of the ruminantia than of 

 mammalia of any other order. It is true that, in the 

 wild plains of South America there were originally no 

 animals of this description, but since they were intro- 

 duced they have multiplied to an extent unprecedented 

 in any other part of the world. It is also highly 

 probably that they have altered the character of the 

 surface, and that, though still seasonally arid in a high 

 degree, the wide plains of Paraguay and Brazil do 

 not become so burnt up in the dry season as they did 



