Book VII. PHYSIOLOGY OF THE BULL AND COW. 103] 



Subsect. 9. Analomij and Physiulogy of the Bull and Cow. 



0921. The general structure of the bull and cow presents some peculiarities when compared with the 

 horse, whose anatomy having been fully explained, will be taken as the subject of comparison. The OX, 

 as an animal machine, displays less complexity of structure than the horse ; but the principal differences 

 between the two will be found to arise from the evident intention of nature to bound the locomotion of 

 horned cattle : the limbs of the ox are therefore not found favourable to speed ; nor does his general mass 

 betray that symmetrical proportion and mechanical composition that would fit it to be acted on to advan- 

 tage, as it regards quick motion, by the powerful muscles he evidently possesses ; for strength alone will 

 not produce speed. 



6922. The skeleton of the ox is formed under the above view; and though the number of his bones differs 

 little from that of the horse, the general form differs materially ; — the frontal, the occipital, and indeed 

 most of the bones composing the skull are broad and extended, while to the former are appended the horns. 

 These, as we have seen (1859.), partake of the nature of true bone, placed within a membranous envelop- 

 ment of a mixed nature between cuticle and cartilage. The ox has no upper nippers ; the grass being 

 cropped into a tuft by means of the tongue, is cut off by the under nippers ; whereas in the horse it is 

 nipped off by the approximation of both incisive teeth. 



69*23. The virtebree or neck bones are the same in number and form as in the horse ; but from the dimin- 

 ished elevation of the head, and the peculiarity of attachment of the great suspensory ligament, the ox 

 has no cervical crest. The dorsal vertebra? are thirteen, with spinous processes, or withers less high. The 

 lumbar vertebra? are six, and the sacral four ; the coccyx or bones of the tail are indefinite in number, 

 flora eighteen to twenty-five. The pelvic bones in the ox are very large; and the rugged outline of the 

 rump in cattle arises from the great rising of the spine of the ilium, and tuberosity of the ischium : the 

 ribs are thirteen, eight of them true, and five false ; and upon the former rest the scapula. 1 , which do not 

 materially differ from those of the horse. 



6924. The fore-limb bones are, the arm, and the fore-arm, which, as in the horse, is composed of the radius 

 and ulna, and bears a general resemblance to that of the horse. The knee is composed of four bones in 

 the first row, and two in the second, which renders that joint inferior to that of the horse in complexity 

 and elasticity : the same holds good with regard to the hock, where the bones entering its composition are 

 also less numerous than in the horse. The canon or shank has no splint bones attached to it, but it is 

 lower, and enlarges into two articular portions corresponding with the metacarpal before, and metatarsal 

 bones behind : thus, from the pastern downwards, the limb is double, and ends in two separate hoofs, which 

 present, individually, a similarity of structure and design to the single hoof of the horse, but less developed ; 

 to the posterior part of each are appended two imperfect phalanges or claws, thus keeping a connection 

 with the digiti. 



6925. The hinder limbs present nothing remarkable, but preserve the same increased simplicity of struc- 

 ture with the fore. 



6926. The viscera of the chest offer no peculiarities from those of the horse to deserve notice ; neither is 

 the economy of the organs concerned different. 



6927. The viscera of the belly of the ox have some specialities, the principal of which consist in the 

 digestive organs, which differ in form, structure, and economy, in some essential particulars, from the 

 same system in the horse. 



6928. The ox has four stomachs, in which formation the goat, sheep, camel, and deer participate. As 

 it is necessary that these animals should collect much herbage for their support; and as it would fatigue 

 and keep them too long in motion to gather and masticate such a quantity at the same time, so a peculiar 

 provision has been made for them, by which they first hastily collect their food, pass it into a reservoir, 

 and afterwards commence the mastication of it at their leisure. 



6929. The first stomach, rumen, or paunch, is a very large membranous and muscular bag, principally 

 occupying the left side, and extending, when full, from the middle of the ribs to the haunch, into which 

 the unruminated food is received; consequently, it is the over-distention of this which occasions the 

 malady called hoven : it is in this stomach also that the concretions called hair balls are found. It presents 

 numerous processes to assist in the retention of the food. 



6930. The second stomach, called also reticulum, bonnet, or kingshood, would appear as a globular ap. 

 pendage to the paunch merely, were it not for its peculiarity of structure, which resembles the cells of 

 the honey-comb, and which is well known to the eaters of tripe. The oesophagus, or gullet, enters at the 

 junction of this with the first stomach, and is continued in the form of a muscular ridge, or segmental 

 tube along the line of junction between these two stomachs, which is thence continued into the many-plies. 

 In the hornless ruminants, the second stomach is exclusively designed as a reservoir for water, and is 

 capable of holding and preserving a vast quantity of it A little of this water is passed up, as wanted, to 

 be mixed with the dry matters chewed during rumination. In the deserts of Arabia, where water is met 

 with only at long distances, this reservoir is peculiarly advantageous to the camel and dromedary; and 

 the Arabian travellers, when famishing for water, save themselves frequently at the expense of their 

 camels, by killing of which, and taking out this stomach, they find a supply. 



6931. The third stomach is named after its foliated structure many-plies ; there are about eighty or 

 ninety of these septa or folds, which are covered with cuticle, in common with the two former stomachs, 

 by which some resemblance is kept up between the digestive processes of the horse and ruminants. By 

 the comparative insensibility of these stomachs, they can also bear potent medicines, which would be 

 destructive to the Carnivora. By this curious extension of surface, the ruminated food is applied and re- 

 applied to the sides of the bag, to be acted upon in its early stage of digestion. 



6932. The fourth stomach, called also the red bag, abomasum, faliscus, and ventriculus intestinMis, is 

 about two feet nine inches long in an ox, and resembles the simple digestive stomach of the Mammalia. It 

 is in this stomach that the pultaceous mass of the chyme undergoes a more perfect animalisation by being 

 mixed with the gastric fluid, which appears to be wholly secreted here, and thus it is that this stomach 

 only produces rennet. The red bag, to increase its secreting surface, has likewise about nine longitudinal 

 plicas to each side, with an intervening rugose structure. 



6933. Rumination, or chewing the cud, is the process whereby the ruminant animals having collected 

 their food, and having passed it into the paunch, with little or no mastication or expense of saliva, begins 

 a new operation. The paunch being full, the animal is stimulated to seek rest and quiet, and he usually 

 lies down. The paunch begins now to exert its extraordinary powers of separating a portion from the 

 contained mass, and to return it into the mouth, where it undergoes a complete mastication and mixing 

 with the saliva. It is then again passed down the throat; but instead of again entering the first stomach, 

 the muscular gutter forms itself into a tube, and carries it at once into the third stomach, where, having 

 to undergo a further change, it is passed into the red bag, or fourth stomach ; to undergo a further 

 solution by means of the gastric fluid, preparatory to its being converted into nutriment under the 

 name of chyle. 



6934. The intestines of the ox have not their divisions into great and small so well marked as in the 

 horse ; yet the tract is very extended, to admit of a perfect separation of all the chylous particles. In the 

 intestines of the horse it has been shown (6402.) that much of the digestive as well as the operative process 

 goes on ; but the chymous mass is more broken down in the stomachs of a cow than by the united forces 

 of the stomachs and intestines of the horse. Grass, containing less organica'l moleculfe than gram, requires 

 to be minutely acted on to afford nutriment ; and thus the well-fed horse, after having been sufficiently 

 nourished, passes off dung containing much of the original principles of his farinaceous food, and which 

 forms excellent manure ; while that of the ox, becoming almost wholly decomposed and nearly feculent, ii 

 very inferior for that purpose. 



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