26 THE STOCKFEEDER'S COMPANION 



Here the action on the food is the same as with the 

 horse. 



This temporary sojourn of the food into the paunch 

 gives ruminants a much greater power of digesting 

 fibrous foods such as hay and straw than non-ruminants. 

 The fermentation of the food in the paunch, in addition 

 to softening it, decomposes part of the food, with the 

 production of certain organic acids such as butyric and 

 lactic plus carbon dioxide gas, marsh gas, and to some 

 extent hydrogen gas. Although there are special 

 muscles to return the food to the mouth, they are 

 assisted very much by these gases as they escape by 

 the mouth into the air. 



The writer has noticed tegs in winter give the food 

 from forty to eighty chews before swallowing it a 

 second time. Bullocks in summer often chew the 

 food seventy to eighty times before swallowing it the 

 second time. 



The Stomach. In the stomach the food comes in 

 contact with the gastric juice, which contains two 

 ferments called " pepsin " and " rennin " respectively, 

 and in addition a certain amount of acid (hydrochloric 

 and lactic). These acids give the characteristic acid 

 reaction to gastric juice. It appears that "pepsin" is 

 secreted in the first part of the stomach, and does 

 not act on the albuminoids except in acid solutions. 

 In acid solutions, however, the pepsin attacks the 

 albuminoids, with the result that some of them are 

 converted into such bodies as albumoses, peptones, 

 and possibly amino-acids. The amino-acids at least 

 are capable of being absorbed into the system. 

 " Rennin " curdles milk, and is found abundantly 

 in the stomach of calves. 



The forward and backward action of the muscular 



