MECHANISM OP RUMINATION. 115 



time, or, in other words, ruminated, that it descends into the 

 manyplies, and thence into the fourth stomach, which is the 

 true seat of digestion. It is at first very astonishing to see the 

 food descending, sometimes into the paunch and sometimes into 

 the manyplies, according as the deglutition is taking place for 

 the first time, or as the substances have been already chewed ; 

 and we might be almost tempted to attribute this phenomenon 

 to a kind of tact, almost amounting to intelligence, with which 

 the respective openings might be endowed. But the recent 

 experiments of M. Flourens show, that it is a necessary conse- 

 quence of the anatomical arrangement of the parts ; and they give 

 an explanation of it equally simple and satisfactory. When the 

 animal swallows, unchewed, the solid substances on which it 

 generally feeds, these substances, having arrived at the point 

 where the oesophagus is continued as a furrow or imperfectly- 

 covered channel, mechanically separate the sides of this demi- 

 canal (which is usually transformed into a tube by the contrac- 

 tion of these walls), and fall into the two first stomachs placed 

 beneath ; but when the animal swallows any liquid, or food 

 which has been softened and become semi-fluid, their presence in 

 this canal does not produce the separation of its sides. This last 

 portion of the oesophagus consequently preserves the form of a 

 tube, and conducts the whole food, or the greater part of it, into 

 the manyplies, where it terminates. It is consequently the 

 opening or shutting of this portion of the oesophagus, which 

 determines the entrance of the food into the two first stomachs 

 or its passage into the third ; and it is the state of the food itself 

 which decides this, according as it is sufficiently bulky, or not, 

 to separate the walls of the oesophagus, which are naturally 

 pressed together, or to flow through the channel that is always 

 open, by which this passage leads towards the manyplies. The 

 food, after its first deglutition, is only imperfectly divided, and 

 consists of tolerably large pieces ; whilst after having been again 

 chewed, they are changed into a soft half-fluid paste ; this cir- 

 cumstance is consequently sufficient to determine their fall into 

 the paunch, or their passage into the manyplies. With regard 

 to the regular regurgitation, by which the food contained in the 



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