94 TUt NATURE AND TREATMENT OP 



made for a notable quantity of aliment, for that especially 

 which has been sufficiently attenuated, not being returned to 

 the mouth. In what proportion does M. Colin make these 

 enter into his calculation ? For this we look in vain : thou^^h 

 this detail it is which constitutes the veritable secret of ru- 

 mination. 



" And, after all, what does such calculation prove ? Hay is 

 not the exclusive provender of the bovine race. Their food is 

 either dry, or very dry, or green, or pulpous, or mealy, or liq- 

 uid, all which variations M. Colin's calculation has left out of 

 consideration. And besides, were his estimate true, that an ox 

 required more than a quarter of the day for the operation of 

 rumination, he could no longer be employed as a substitute for 

 the horse in certain mountainous countries where the latter is 

 unavailable. But the fact is, that the ox's food is not often 

 hay alone. 



" The author (M. Colin) confirms the fact of the aliments, 

 after detention in the rumen being known to become acid, 

 though, after return into the mouth and mastication for some 

 seconds, they evince alkaline reaction ; tumeric paper recov- 

 ering its blue but very tardily. 



" Mastication being the most tangible act of the operation of 

 rumination, we are enabled concerning it to speak Crith more 

 confidence. M. Colin has used the word merycique to denote 

 this process. The more simple treatment of the subject, how- 

 ever, appears to be to consider mastication as preparatory and 

 ruminatory. 



" M. Colin has divided rumination into unilateral and its vari- 

 eties, and alternate and its. varieties. In this, however, he ap- 

 pears to commit a grand mistake. There may be such distinc- 

 tions made in mastication, though we would rather call them 

 preparatory and ruminatory, and say the grand act of rumination 

 is an intermediate process. To make rumination consist in the 

 action of the jaws is to confound the accessory with the princi- 

 pal act, the sensible operations with the insensible ones. There- 

 fore, instead of saying unilateral and alternate rumination, we 

 would say unilateral and alternate mastication. 



