•298 CATTLE. 



is of a liquid form, and it is swallowed in small quantities, and with 

 little force at each act of deglutition. 'J'he instinctive closure of the 

 pillars — an act of organic life — (because the milk if suffered to fall 

 mto the rumen would be lost, or would undergo dangerous changes 

 there) — has far more to do with the direction of the fluid than any 

 mechanical eff'ect resulting from the form of the aliment, or the force 

 with which it descended the gullet. Tt is curious to observe the 

 comparatively diminutive size of the rumen, and the development of 

 the abomasum or digesting stomach in the foetal calf. 



THE SUBJECT OF Ri MINATIOK, AND THE CHANGES OF THE FOOD RESUMED. 



The food, being returned from the reticulum to the mouth, is there 

 subjected to a second mastication, generally very leisurely performed, 

 and which is continued until enough is ground not only to satisfy 

 the cravings of hunger, but to fill the comparatively small true sto- 

 mach and intestine of the animal ; who then, if he is undisturbed, 

 usually falls asleep. The act of rumination is accompanied, or 

 closely followed, by that of digestion, and requires a considerable 

 concentration of vital power; and hence the appearance of tran- 

 quillity and sleepy pleasure which the countenance of the beast pre- 

 sents. The rumen is rarely or never emptied ; and probably the 

 food that is returned for rumination is that which has been macera- 

 ting in the stomach during many hours. The process of rumina- 

 tion is very easily inteiTupted. 



The portion of food having been sufiiciently comminuted, is at 

 length swallowed a second time ; and then, either being of a softer 

 consistence, or not being so violently driven down the gullet, or, by 

 some instinctive influence, it passes over the floor of the canal, with- 

 out separating the pillars, and enters the manyplus, or third stomach. 

 This is represented at h, p. 287, and m, p. 291. 



The manyplus presents an admirable provision for that perfect 

 comminution of the food which is requisite in an animal destined to 

 supply us with nutriment both when living and when dead. That 

 which is quite ground down is permitted to pass on ; but the leaves, 

 that have been described as hanging from the roof, and floating close 

 over the cesi>phagean canal, and armed with numerous hook-formed 

 papillae, seize upon every particle of fibre that remains, and draw it 

 up between them, and file it down by means of the hard prominences 

 on their surfaces, and suffer it not to escape until it is reduced to a 

 pulpy mass. 



These three stomachs, then, are evidently designed for the prepa- 

 ration and comminution of the food before it enters the fourth sto- 

 mach, in which the process of digestion may be said to commence, 

 and where the food, already softened, is converted into a fluid called 

 chyme. The i Ulcus coat of the abomasum abounds with small folli- 



