110 The Feeding of Animals 



muscular coat, which seems necessary to produce the 

 movement of large masses of food. The inner or 

 mucous layer is covered with numerous leaflike pro- 

 jections, in which the blood-vessels are freely distrib- 

 uted. During its stay in this reservoir, the moist food 

 becomes thoroughly softened and besides undergoes a 

 variety of changes, chiefly those due to the organized 

 ferments combined perhaps with the continued action 

 of the saliva. These fermentations cause an almost 

 constant evolution of gases, which are as constantly 

 absorbed by the blood. It is suggested that the rapid 

 puffing up of the paunch of a freshly -killed bovine is 

 due to the failure of the blood to take up these gases. 

 Sometimes unnatural and dangerous fermentations set 

 in, induced often by the consumption in the spring of 

 a large quantity of easily fermentable food such as 

 green clover. This causes hoven, and unless the gas 

 pressure is at once relieved by an opening into the 

 paunch the animal dies, often after the bursting of the 

 rumen. 



A portion of the food reaches the reticulum or 

 honeycomb, either through the oesophagal slit when 

 first swallowed, or through a large opening between 

 the paunch and the honeycomb. The reticulum also 

 communicates with the third stomach by an opening. 

 This is the smallest division of the stomach, and de- 

 rives its common name from the fact that its interior 

 surface is divided by ridges of the mucous membrane 

 into cells which bear a close resemblance to a honey- 

 comb. These cells, which are several sided and quite 

 deep, appear to be a "catch-all" for the foreign bodies 



