THE FOOD OF YOUNG ANIMALS 



Types of Milk 



187 



The animals in the first group are the ruminants, but they do 

 not chew the cud during the stage of their life when they are living 

 chiefly on mother's milk. The capacity of the stomach and of the 

 intestines is enormous, but in early life the intestines, and especially 

 the caecum, or capacious blind gut, remain narrow, and the result 

 is that the greater part of the digestion takes place in the stomach. 

 The milk forms a solid mass of curd when it is acted on by the 

 ferments produced by the wall of the stomach. The curd remains 

 five hours at least in the stomach and is not passed into the intestines 

 until it is fully digested and ready to be absorbed. 



Exactly opposite conditions exist in the herbivorous animals 

 which do not chew the cud, such as horses and tapirs and the 

 rhinoceros. In these also the whole capacity of the digestive canal 

 is great, but it is differently distributed, for even in the young foal 

 the intestines are nearly nine times as capacious as the stomach. 

 The milk when it is acted on by the digestive juices forms a soft, 

 gelatinous curd which passes very easily out of the stomach into 

 the intestines, remaining in the former organ rather less than two 

 hours. The chief work of the digestive juices as well as the absorp- 

 tion of the digested material take place in the intestines. 



