THE REASON WHY IN NATURAL HISTORY. 



491 



ai. Why do oxen, sheep, deer, etc., ruminate / 

 Because they have no front teeth in the upper 

 jaw, the place of which is occupied by a hardened 

 gum. The first process, therefore, consists 

 simply of cropping their food, which is passed 

 into the paunch, to be brought up again and 

 ground by the back teeth when the cropping 

 process is over. 



Because, in a wild state, they are constantly 

 exposed to the attacks of carnivorous beasts, and 

 as the mastication of the large amount of vege- 

 table food required for their sustenance would 

 take a considerable time, they are provided with 

 stomachs, by which they are enabled to fill their 

 paunches quickly, and then, retiring to a place 

 of safety, they bring their food up again, and 

 chew it at leisure. 



22. Why can ruminating animals recover the food 

 from their paunches t 



Because they have a voluntary power over the 

 muscles of the throat, by which they can bring 

 up the food at will. 



23. Why can they keep the unchewed food in the 

 paunch, from the " cud " they have chewed for 

 nourishment t 



Because their stomachs are divided into three 

 chambers : i, the paunch, where the unchewed 

 food is stored ; 2, the reticulum, where portions 

 of the food are received from the paunch, and 

 moistened and rolled into a " cud," to be sent up 

 and chewed ; and 3, the psalterium, which re- 

 ceives the masticated food, and continues the 

 process of digestion. 



In quadrupeds the deficiency of teeth is usually compen- 

 tated by the faculty of rumination. The sheep, deer and ox 

 tribe are without fore-teeth in the upper jaw. These rumi- 

 nate. The horse and ass are furnished with teeth in the up- 

 per jaw. and do not ruminate. In the former class the grass 

 and hay descend into the stomachs nearly in the state in 

 which they are cropped from the pasture, or gathered from 



I the bundle. In the stomach, they are softened by the gast- 

 ric juice, which in these animals is unusually copious. Thus 

 softened and rendered tender, they are returned a second 

 time to the action of the mouth, where the grinding teeth 

 complete at their leisure the trituration which is necessary, 

 but which was before left imperfect. I say. the trituration 

 which is necessary ; for it appears from experiments that 

 the gastric fluid of sheep, for example, has no effect in di- 



I gesiing plants, unless they have been previously masticated ; 

 that it only produces a slight maceration, nearly as common 

 water would do in a like degree of beat ; but that when once 

 vegetables are reduced to pieces by mastication, the fluid 

 then exerts upon them its specific operation. Its first effect is to 

 soften them, and to destroy their natural consistency ; it then 



goes on to dissolve them, not sparing even the toughest 

 parts, such as the nerves of the leaves. It i * very probable, 

 that the gratification also of the animal is renewed and pro- 

 longed by this faculty. Sheep, deer and oxen appear to be 

 in a state of enjoyment whilst they are chewing the cud It 

 is then, perhaps, that they best relish their food. 



24. Why do quadrupeds that are vegetable eaten 

 feed so continually t 



Because their food contains but a small pro- 

 portion of nutrition, so that it is necessary to 

 digest a large quantity to obtain sufficient nour- 

 ishment. 



25. Why do flesh-eating animals satisfy them- 

 selves with a rapid meal t 



Because the food which they eat is rich in 

 nutritious matter, and more readily digestible 

 than vegetable food ; it does not, therefore, re- 

 quire the same amount of grinding with the 

 teeth. 



26. Why do the smaller animals breed more 

 abundantly than the larger ones t 



Because the smaller ones are designed to be 

 the food of the larger ones, and are therefore 

 created in numbers adapted to that end. An 

 elephant produces but one calf ; the whale but 

 one young one ; a butterfly lays six hundred eggs ; 

 silkworms lay from 1,000 to 2,000 eggs; the 

 wasp, 5,000 ; the ant, 4,000 to 5,000 ; the queen 

 bee, 5,000 to 6,000, or 40,000 to 50,000 in a 

 season ; and a species of white ant (termes fat- 

 alts) produces 86,400 eggs in a day. Birds of 

 prey seldom produce more than two eggs ; the 

 sparrow and duck tribe frequently sit upon a 

 dozen ; in rivers there prevail a thousand min- 

 nows for one pike ; and in the sea, a million oi 

 herrings for a single shark ; while of the animal- 

 cules upon which the whale subsists, there must 

 exist hundreds of millions for one whale. 



27. Why have cats, and various other animah, 

 whiskers / 



The whiskers of cats, and of the cat tribe, are 

 exceedingly sensitive, enabling them, when seiz 

 ing their prey in the dark, to feel its position 

 most acutely. These hairs are supplied, through 

 their roots, with branches of the same nerves 

 that give sensibility to the lips, and that in in- 

 sects supply their "feelers." 



28. Why has the horse a smaller */qr .*k pro- 

 portionately than other animals t 



