480 



VERTEBRATA. 



are always four in number, the first three of which are so disposed that the food may enter into 

 either of them at the will of the animal, the oesophagus terminating at the point of communi- 

 cation.* 



(Esophagus. 



Cardia — 



3. FeuilUt- 



4. Rennet. 2. Honey-Comb. 1. Taunch. 



STOMACH OF THE SHEEP. 



The first and largest stomach is named the Paunch, f It receives a large quantity of vegetable 

 matter, coarsely bruised by the first mastication. From this it passes into the second, termed the 

 Honey-comb Bay, the parietes or inner sides of which are laminated like the cells of bees. This 

 second stomach, very small and globular, seizes the food, and moistens and compresses it into 

 little pellets or cuda, which afterward successively return to the mouth to be rechewed. The ani- 

 mal remains at rest during this operation, which lasts until all the herbage first taken into the 

 paunch has been subjected to it. The aliment thus remasticated descends directly into the third 

 stomach, termed the Feuillet, on account of its parietes being longitudinally laminated, somewhat 

 like the leaves of a book, from which it descends into the fourth, or Caillette, or Rennet-bag, the 

 coats of which are wrinkled, and which is the true organ of digestion, analogous to the simple 

 stomach of animals in general. In the young of the Ruminants, while they continue to subsist on 

 the milk of the mother, the caillette is the largest of the four. The paunch is only developed by 

 receiving great quantities of herbage, which finally give it enormous volume. These animals 

 have the intestinal canal very long, but there are few enlargements in the great intestines. The 



* Blumenbach observes that the first three stomachs are connected with each other, and with a groove-like contin- 

 uation of the oesophagus, in a very remarkable way. The latter tube enters just where the paunch and the second 

 and third stomachs approach each other; it is then continued with the groove, which ends in the third stomach. 

 This groove is therefore open to the first stomachs, which lie to its right and left. But the thick prominent lips which 

 form the margin of the groove admit of being drawn together so as to form a complete canal, which then constitutes 

 a direct continuation (if the o'snphagus into the third stomach. The functions of this very singular part will vary ac- 

 cording as we consider it in the state of a groove or of a closed canal. In the first case, the grass, &c, is passed, after 

 a very slight degree of mastication, into the paunch, as into a reservoir. Thence it goes in small portions into the 

 second stomach, from which, after a further maceration, it is propelled, by a kind of antiperistaltic motion, into the 

 oesophagus, and thus returns into the mouth. It is here ruminated and again swallowed, when the groove is shut, 

 and the morsel of food, after this second mastication, is thereby conducted directly into the third stomach. During 

 the short time which it probably stays in this situation between the folds of the internal coat, it is still further pre- 

 pared for digestion, which process is completed in the fourth or true digestive stomach. 



It is further said that the shutting of the groove when the food is again swallowed after rumination, supposes a 

 power of voluntary motion in this part, and indeed, it is added, the influence of the will in the whole affair of rumi- 

 nation is incontestable. It is not confined to any particular time, since the animal can delay it according to circum- 

 stances when the paunch is quite full. It has been expressly stated of some men, who have had the power of rumi- 

 nating instances of which are not very rare — that it was quite voluntary with them. "I have known," continues 

 Blumenbach, " two men who ruminated their vegetable food; both assured me that they had a real enjoyment in 

 doing this, which has also been observed of others; and one of them had the power of doing it or leaving it alone, 

 according to circumstances." 



tTarious names are given to the different stomachs of the Ruminantia : the first, or PnvncJi, is called Rumen \ 

 the -erond. or Honey-comb Bag, is called Bonnet, King's Hood, Reticulum, OUula, dbc. ; the third, or Feuillet, meaning 

 two leaves of a book, is called Jfanyplus, Psalterium, dbc. ; the fourth, or Rennet, is called Abomasm, Faliscus, &c. 



