THE CESOPHAGtJS WITHIN THE THORAX. 



other. It would therefore appear, at first inspection, to be a perfect 

 canal, and that what descended into it from the gullet would run 

 on to the third and fourth stomachs. These pillars are duplicatures 

 of the roof of the first and second stomachs, which lie immediately 

 underneath them. 



c is the continuation of the same canal into and through the 

 manyplus, or third stomach, which is known by its leaves and thin 

 hooked edges. 



c? is a prolongation of the same canal into the fourth, or true di- 

 gestive stomach. It is easy therefore to perceive that the food, 

 whether solid or fluid, may, at the will of the animal, or under par- 

 ticular circumstances of the constitution, pass into the third and 

 fourth stomachs, without a particle of it entering into the first or 

 second ; and we know that this is the case Avith the food after it has 

 undergone the process of rumination, or a second mastication. 



The following cut will give another view of the same parts. 



a is again the oesophagus, terminating in the oesophagean canal. 



h is, as before, the oesophagean canal ; but now, at the will of the 

 animal, or under certain states of the constitution, these pillars are no 

 longer in contact with each other, but there is a large opening at. the 

 bottom of the oesophagus, displaying the two first stomachs lyino- 

 under them. 



c is the rumen, or pairnch, or first stomach, placed immediately 

 under the termination of the gullet, and substan:es descendino- that 

 tube fall through this opening, and are received into it. All the'food, 

 when first swallowed, goes there, to be preserved for the act of rumi- 

 nation ; and a portion, and occasionally the greatest portion, of the 

 fluids that pass down the gullet, enters the rumen. Farther on, at 



d, is the reticulum, or second stomach. From the state of that 

 stomach, or at the wil' of the animal, the m.uscular pillars here also 

 relax, seld( m or nevei to permit that which is passing alono- the 

 oesophagean canal to enter the reticulum, but that the contents of 

 the reticulum may be thrown into the oesophagean canal. This is 



