180 CATTLE. 



nated bone, and which has nothing to do with the act of breathing, 

 but terminates in a blind pouch, so that the air shall, as it were, 

 loiter there, and any odor which it carries, make a stronger impression 

 on the membrane of the nose. Therefore, and for other reasons that 

 will be stated, the ox has an acute sense of smell. 



THE OTHER BONES OF THE NOSE. 



The S2iperwr maxillary bone forms the greater part of the wall 

 and floor of the nasal cavity. It contains the upper grinders on 

 either side. Its floor does not consist of a single plate of bone, but 

 of cells, like those of the frontal parietal and occipital bones. This 

 bone is represented at a, p. 143 and x, p. 144. 



The anterior maxillary, {z, p. 144.) containing no incisor teeth, is 

 a very small bone. 



The palatine hone (jo, p. 144) is large in the ox, and occupies a 

 great portion of the palate and the floor of the nose. 



CONTENTS OF THE NASAL CAVITY. 



The nasal cavity contains the septum, a cartilaginous division ex- 

 tending from the suture in the roof between the nasals, to a long 

 bone in the form of a groove, named the vomer, and placed on the 

 floor ; and from the top of the nasals to the aethmoid bone, dividing 

 the nose into two equal parts. There is no necessity for this per- 

 fect division, and therefore the vomer, when it has reached about 

 half way up the cavity, begins to leave, and separates from the floor 

 more and more as it approaches the posterior part of the nostiils, 

 leavino- a free and extensive communication between them. This 

 gives room for still more effectual provision for the perfection of 

 the sense of smell. 



THE SENSE OF SMELLING. 



The olfactory, or first pair of nerves, connected with the sense 

 of smelling, is abundantly large in quadrupeds, for it is connec- 

 ted with life itself. The same nerve differs in size in diff"erent 

 quadrupeds, according to the necessity that each has for an acute 

 sense of smell The brain of the ox is not more than half the 

 size of that of the horse, but he has occasion for acuter smell, and 

 his olfactory nerve is nearly as large as that of the horse ; and, com- 

 paring the bulk of the two brains, it is a great deal larger. This 

 nerve comes in contact with a thin plate '^f bone, the crihriform 

 plate (perforated like a cullender,)*' of the sethmoid bone, which di- 

 vides the nasal cavity from that of the skull ; the somewhat thickened 

 portion of another bone interposed between these plates is seen at n, 

 p. 144. The pulpy matter of the nerve is pressed through the holes 

 of this hone, and SDread over a portion of the membrane of the 



