180 



THE SHEPHERD'S MANUAL. 



Fig. 70. BIGHT SIDE OF THE 

 STOMACH. 



tion. The food taken up by the lips and teeth is ground and 

 mixed with saliva in the mouth, passed backwards by the action 

 of the tongue to the gullet, and then forced into the stomach. 



The stomach of the sheep consists of a large irregular sac or pouch, 

 divided into four compartments, generally referred to as distinct 



stomachs, or the first, second, third, 

 and fourth stomachs, (see figs. 70, 71, 

 and 72), or the rumen or paunch, 

 seen at ; the reticulum or honey- 

 comb, c ; the omasum or manyplies, 

 d-, and the abomasum, or rennet, or 

 true digestive stomach, e. The gul- 

 let is seen at a, and the duodenum at 

 /. The functions of the stomachs 

 of the ruminating animals are known 

 only somewhat obscurely. Anatomy 

 only teaches their form and charac- 

 ter, and leaves all the rest in doubt, 

 or to be decided by experiment and 

 observation. From the structure of 

 the stomachs we are able to form a generally complete idea of the 

 process of digestion which goes on within them ; of some of the 

 details there is nothing certain as yet to offer. The first two 

 stomachs are placed parallel to each other, and the gullet ends 

 almost equally in each, as seen at a, 

 in fig. 72, which shows the inside 

 formation of the stomachs. The 

 second stomach, c, communicates 

 with the third by the oesophagean 

 canal, g, which opens into the third 

 stomach, (not seen in figs. 70 and 71), 

 and ends there. The fourth stomach 

 is connected with the third by a 

 distinct opening. The paunch, b, is 

 the largest compartment, being four 

 times the capacity of the other three 

 together. It is divided into four in- 

 complete compartments by muscular 

 walls, and is lined with a membrane covered by a multitude of soft 

 pillars compressed closely together, which make an uneven surface. 

 The second stomach, c, is lined with cells having five or six sides 

 from which it takes the common name, the honeycomb. These 

 two compartments, or stomachs, are in reality one, the latter being 



Fig. 71. LEFT SIDE OF THE 

 STOMACH. 



