RUMINATION. 107 



6. When these animals feed they swallow their aliments at 

 first without having chewed them, These substances then enter 

 into the paunch and there accumulate ; thence they pass into the 

 second stomach (reticulum ;) but after having remained there for 

 a certain time they are carried back again into the mouth to be 

 chewed, and afterwards swallowed again ; and when they descend 

 again into the stomach, they no more enter the paunch or reticu- 

 lum, but go directly to the mam/plies (third stomach) from which 

 they pass into the fourth stomach or rennet-bag, where they are 

 digested. 



7. At first, one is astonished to see food pass at one time into 

 the paunch and reticulum, at another into the many piles, (third 

 stomach,) according as it has been swallowed for the first time, 

 or after it has been regurgitated, and one is tempted to attribute 

 this phenomenon to a sort of tact with which the openings of 

 these different digestive pouches seem to be endowed. But there 

 is nothing of the kind, this result being the necessary consequence 

 of the anatomical arrangement of the parts. The oesophagus 

 terminates below in a species of gutter or longitudinal slit, which 

 occupies the upper part of the reticulum, (second stomach) and 

 the paunch, and is continued to the manyplies. Ordinarily, the 

 edges of the slit, of which we have just spoken, lie close together, 

 and then this gutter constitutes a perfect tube which leads from 

 the oesophagus into the manyjjlies (third stomach ;) but if the 

 alimentary ball swallowed by the animal is solid, and somewhat 

 large, it distends this tube, and separates the edges of the open- 

 ing through which the oesophagus communicates with the two 

 first stomachs : the food falls into these pouches ; but if the 

 alimentary ball be soft and pulpy, as is the case when mastica- 

 tion has been completed, the matter swallowed, enters into this 

 same tube without separating the edges of the slit, and reaches the 

 third stomach. 



8. It is by this mechanism that unchewed food which the ani- 

 mal swallows for the first time, stops in the paunch and reticulum ; 

 while, after it has been chewed a second time and well mixed 

 with saliva, it penetrates directly into the manyplies. 



6. What becomes of the food wh< n first swal'owed by Ruminants? 

 After it has been for a time in the second stomach, what becomes of it? 

 What becomes of the food after it has been swallowed a second time ? 



7. What is the reason why food swallowed thcjirst time does not enter 

 the third and fourth stomach ? Why does no*, the food enter the first and 

 second stomach after it has been chewed and swallowed a second time ? 

 What is the anatomical arrangement of the stomachs and oesophagus of the 

 Rurninai tia? 



8. What is the effect of this arrangement ? 



10 



