26 THE FARMER'S VETERINARIAN 



calves or other young animals. Pepsin, also ob- 

 tained directly from the stomach, is now a con- 

 spicuous preparation in medicine. The food, after 

 leaving the stomach, goes into the bowels and is 

 acted upon by secretions of the liver and pancreas 

 or sweetbreads. It should be noted in passing that 

 no secretion enters the first three divisions of the 

 ruminant's stomach. It is only in the fourth or 

 true stomach that the gastric juice is found. 



The Stomach Churn. While food is in the 

 stomach it is subjected to a constant turning move- 

 ment that causes it to travel from the entrance to 

 the exit or intestines. When it passes into the small 

 intestines it is subjected to the action of bile 

 and pancreatic juices, which have principally 

 to do with the breaking up of the fat compounds. 

 Both resemble, to a certain extent, saliva in their 

 ability to change starch into sugar. 



The secretion of the bile comes from the liver 

 and the pancreatic juice from the pancreas or 

 sweetbreads, and both are poured into the intestines 

 near the same point, so that they act together. The 

 ferments they contain act in the following ways: 

 They change starch into sugar, fat into fatty com- 

 pounds, they curdle milk, and convert protein com- 

 pounds into soluble peptones. 



The process of digestion is finally ended in the 

 intestines, where absorption into the system takes 

 place. There is no opening at all from the bowels 

 into the body, but the digestive nutriment is picked 

 up by the blood when handed into the body from 

 the intestines by means of countless little cells 

 called villi, that line the walls of the intestines. 

 These villi cells have little hair-like projections ex- 

 tending into the intestines, which constantly move ; 

 these protrusions, as they move about, catch on to 



