ANIMALS. 



135 



several times as large as the other three stomachs com- 

 bined. In a large ox it contains about sixty gallons, and 

 occupies nearly the whole length of the left side of the ab- 

 domen, or internal cavity of the body back of the lungs. 



The second stomach (b) is in reality only a part of the 

 first, as there is a free passage connecting the two. The 

 membrane lining its inte- 

 rior is curiously formed in- 

 to an arrangement of cells 

 like honeycomb. 



The third stomach (/) 

 is provided with a great 

 number of hard, hooked 

 projections, which hold the 

 food until it has been ren- 

 dered fine enough to pass 

 through into the fourth 

 stomach. 



The fourth stomach (<?) is 

 the true digesting stomach, 

 corresponding to the stomach of the horse or the pig. 



The gullet, or tube (0) through which the food passes 

 from the mouth to the stomach in swallowing, is, in 

 ruminants, provided at its lower end with a peculiar 

 canal, by which the food as it is swallowed may pass 

 either into the first two stomachs on the one hand, or 

 on the other hand into the third stomach. All food of 

 a coarse, fibrous nature generally passes into the first 

 two stomachs, but that which is fine and soft, requiring 

 no further preparation, may pass at once into the third 

 and fourth stomachs. 



Rumination. Rumination, or the chewing of the cud, 

 is a very interesting process. As the first stomach is 



Stomach of a Ruminant. 



