THE DIGESTIVE PROCESS 25 



In the young animal the paunch is comparatively small, 

 but as the animal develops and begins to consume bulky 

 foods the paunch enlarges considerably, until it becomes 

 approximately ten times as big as the other three 

 compartments put together. 



The reticulum has a honeycomb appearance on the 

 inside, hence the name honeycomb. It is comparatively 

 small in size, and acts partly as a reservoir for water. 



The inner surface of the omasum consists of longi- 

 tudinal folds, which lie very close together in many 

 folds or manyplies. These folds are for the purpose 

 of dividing the food and pressing it between the 

 folds before it is passed on to the fourth stomach 

 (abomasum). The latter is called the rennet stomach, 

 because the rennet used in cheesemaking is prepared 

 by salting the stomachs of calves. 



The capacity of a stomach of a full-grown ox may 

 be 40 or 50 gallons. 



The peculiar construction of the stomach as well 

 as the habit of swallowing food unmasticated is the 

 cause, to a large extent, of ruminants " chewing their 

 cud," or ruminating. 



Rumination. The food is given a hurried chew and 

 swallowed ; it then passes chiefly into the paunch. Here 

 it remains for a time, and becomes softened with the 

 saliva which has been swallowed with the food, and 

 in fact with any liquid that happens to find its way into 

 this compartment. After the food has fermented a 

 short time, it is brought back into the mouth (regurgi- 

 tated), chewed a second time, and then swallowed 

 again. The finer parts of the food pass along a 

 groove into the third stomach, where the food is 

 rubbed together by the manyplies before being 

 passed on to the fourth or true digestive stomach. 



