172 NATURAL HISTORY. 



tion of the paunch, as much as he can. This membrane 

 acts with force on the grass which it contains; it is 

 chewed but a little, and its quantity is greatly increas- 

 ed by fermentation. Were the food liquid, this force 

 of contraction would occasion it to pass by the third 

 stomach, which only communicates with the other by 

 a narrow conveyance, and cannot admit such dry food, 

 Or, at least, can only admit the moister parts. The 

 food must, therefore, necessarily pass up again into the 

 oasophagus, the orifice of which is larger than the ori- 

 fice of the conduit, and the animal again chews and 

 macerates them, imbibes them afresh with its saliva, 

 and thus by degrees makes the aliment more moist. 

 He reduces it to a paste, liquid enough for it to enter 

 this conduit which passes into the third stomach, 

 where it is again macerated before it enters the fourth ; 

 and it is in this last stomach that the decomposition 

 of the hay is finished, which is reduced to a perfect 

 mucilage. 



What chiefly confirms the truth of this explication 

 is, that as long as the animals suck, and are fed with 

 milk and other liquid aliments, they do not chew the 

 cud. They chew the cud much more too in winter, 

 when they are fed with dry food, than in summer, 

 when they eat tender grass. 



Good milk is neither too thick nor too thin. Its 

 consistence should be such that when we take a drop, it 

 should preserve its roundness without running, and in 

 colour it should be of a beautiful white. That which is 

 inclinable to blue or yellow is not good. Its taste 

 should be sweet, without any bitterness or sourness. 

 It is better during the month of May, and during the 

 summer, than in the winter ; and it is never perfectly 

 good but when the cow is of a proper age, and in goecl 



