THE DISEASES OP CATTLE. 97 



the mouth. On the contrary, indeed, the moment such pressure 

 is resumed, it will redescend. 



" We concur with M. Colin that the cud which is returned to 

 the mouth requires being soaked in fluid to render its passage 

 easy ; but we do not hold with him that such fluid is furnished 

 by the rumen or by the reticulum. It cannot come from the 

 rumen, because fluid never exists there in any quantity. And 

 as for the water within the receptacle, fluid there not only me- 

 chanically facilitates the displacement of the alimentary matters, 

 but plays a most important part in the insensible operations of 

 rumination. 



" A certain quantity of ingesta becomes requisite for the con- 

 traction of the rumen : it being rendered inert either by being 

 surcharged with aliment or through emptiness. While for the 

 due execution of rumination is required a proportionality be- 

 tween the aliment taken in and the aliment under rumination. 

 But the food may not be in excess within the rumen, and yet 

 the organ suffer from distention, from the disengagement within 

 it of a quantity of gas ; while which state continues, rumination 

 ceases. In a state of vacuity the rumen lacks the point (Taddui 

 requisite for contraction ; the same as is sometimes seen in the 

 uterus in which no water is collected, stifling, as it were, the 

 stimulating and provocative pains within it. The impossibility 

 of rumination under vacuity of rumen seems to prove to us, 

 that the abdominal muscles play but a feeble part in the act of 

 rumination. We also think that the cessation of the act, after 

 paralysis being effected through section of the spinal marrow 

 in the dorsal region, in M. Flouren's experiment, was occasioned 

 by the weakening of the constrictive force of the abdominal 

 parietes, which, in the natural condition, operates as a counter- 

 active to the weight of the viscera. 



" After taking in a suflUciency of food, the animal seeks repose 

 for a longer or shorter time, during which are elaborating the 

 matters afterwards to become subjected to rumination. A silent, 

 shady retreat is sought after by the timid beast, flying from all 

 molestation, avoiding every thing, in fact, that might interrupt 

 comfortable rumination. As soon as the act commences, various 

 9 



