196 



THE VITAL FUNCTIONS. 



It would appear, from the observations of Sir 

 E. Home, that liquids drank by the animal pass 

 at once into the second stomach, the entrance 

 into the first being closed. The food contained 

 in the paunch is transferred, by small portions 

 at a time, into this second, or honey-comb 

 stomach, in which there is always a supply of 

 water for moistening the portion of food intro- 

 duced into it. It is in this latter stomach, then, 

 that the food is rolled into a ball, and thrown up, 

 through the oesophagus, into the mouth, where it 

 is again masticated at leisure, and while the ani- 

 mal is reposing ; a process which is well known 

 by the name oi chewino- the cud, or rumination. 



When the mass, after being thoroughly ground 

 down by the teeth, is again swallowed, it passes 

 along the oesophagus into the third stomach (3), 

 the orifice of which is brought forwards by 

 the muscular bands, forming the two ridges 

 already noticed, which are continued from the 

 second stomach, and which, when they con- 

 tract, effectually prevent any portion of the 

 food from dropping into either of the preceding 

 cavities. In the ox, this third stomach is de- 

 scribed by Sir E. Home as having the form 

 of a crescent, and as containing twenty-four 

 septa, or broad folds of its inner membrane. 

 These folds are placed parallel to one another, 

 like the leaves of a book, exce23ting that they 

 are of unequal breadths, and that a narrower 

 fold is placed between each of the broader ones. 



