STRUCTURAL PECULIARITIES AND ANATOMICAL NOTES 33 



being conducted along the upper margin of the second 

 through a canal formed by a muscular ridge, which 

 contracts with so much force as not only to open the 

 orifice of the second compartment, but so as to bring 

 forward the mouth of the third into the second, by 

 which action the muscular ridges which separate the 

 rows of cells are brought close together, so as to ex- 

 clude these cavities from the canal through which the 

 water passes. 



This third compartment contains various leaves Third 

 or folds of lining membrane, similar in appearance to ment 

 the leaves of a book, which are so covered with a 

 number of prominences and so placed that any ali- 

 ment which comes from the reticulum must fall 

 between them, and describe three-fourths of a circle, 

 before it can reach the orifice of the abomasus. Be- 

 tween these folds it receives still further trituration, or 

 grinding into fine powder, and mucous admixture, and 

 it is compressed into flattened portions, which are 

 gradually conveyed through a valvular orifice into the 

 fourth compartment. 



This is the true digestive cavity, where the food The 

 mixes with the juices, which by their action entirely alter digestive 

 its properties. The most active of these is the gastric ment ar 

 fluid, with which it first comes into contact, and which 

 is secreted in the inner membrane of the abomasus. It 

 is then conveyed to the first small intestines, ' the com- 

 mencement of which,' Y.-S. Steel says, ' forms a distinct 

 pouch in the camel,' where it is subjected to the action 

 of yet two more juices, bile from the liver, and the 

 pancreatic secretions ; here the aliment becomes fit 

 for the separation of the blood material, which is taken 



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