RUMINATING ANIMALS. 2H3 



noticed. The leaves or stalks of vegetables form a kind of food, which, in proportion to its bulk, 

 adonis but little support, and requires, therefore, a complicated digestive apparatus and a l"i:'_; 

 chemical process, in order to extract from it the scanty nutriment it contains, anil to prepare it for 

 being applied to the uses of the system. This apparatus is usually considered as consisting of four 

 stomachs. 



The grass, which is devoured in 1-argc quantities by these animals, and which undergoes but 

 little mastication in the mouth, is hastily swallowed, and is received through the aesophagus () into a 

 capacious reservoir, called the paunch (b). This cavity is lined internally with a thick membrane, In-set 

 with numerous flattened papillse, and is often divided into pouches by transverse contractions. While 

 the food remains in this bag it continues in rather a dry state ; but the moisture with which it is 

 surrounded contributes to soften it, and to prepare it for a second mastication, which is effected in the 

 following manner : Connected with the paunch is another, but much smaller sac, which is considered 

 as the second stomach ; and from its internal membrane being thrown into numerous irregular folds, 

 forming the sides of polygonal cells, it has been called the honeycomb stomach (c). A singular con- 

 nection exists between this stomach and the preceding; for, while the aesophagus appears to open 

 naturally into the paunch, there is on each side of its termination a muscular ridge which projects 

 from the orifice of the latter, so that the two together form a channel leading into the second stomach, 

 and thus the food can readily pass from the aasophagus into either of these cavities, according as the 

 orifice of the one or the other is open to receive it. 



It appears from the observations of Sir E. Home, that liquids drunk by the animal pass at once 

 into the second stomach, the entrance into the first being closed. The food contained in the paunch 

 is transferred, by small portions at a time, into the second, or honeycomb stomach, in which there is 

 always a supply of water for moistening the portion of food introduced into it. It is in this latter 

 stomach, then, that the food is rolled into a ball and thrown up, through the aesophagus, into the 

 mouth, wi.ere it is again masticated at leisure, and while the animal is reposing ; a process which is 

 well known as chewing the cud, or, rumination. 



After the mass has been thoroughly ground down by the teeth, it is again swallowed, when it passes 

 along the aesophagus into the third stomach (d), the orifice of which is brought forward by the muscular 

 bands forming the two ridges already noticed, which are continued from the second stomach, and 

 which, when they contract, effectually prevent any portion of the food from dropping into either of 

 the preceding cavities. 



In the ox, this third stomach is described by Sir Everard as having the form of a crescent, and 

 as containing four-aud-twenty septa, or broad folds of its inner membrane. These folds are placed 

 parallel to one another, like the leaves of a book, excepting that they are of unequal breadths, and that 

 a narrow fold is placed between each of the broader ones. Whatever is introduced into this cavity 

 must pass between these folds, and describe three-fourths of a circle, before it can arrive at the orifice 

 leading to the fourth stomach (e), which is so near to that of the third, that the distance between them 

 does not exceed three inches. 



There is, however, a more direct channel of communication between the sesophagus and the 

 fourth stomach, along which milk taken by the calf, and which does not require to be either 

 macerated or ruminated, is conveyed directly from the sesophagus to this fourth stomach. For at 

 that period the folds of the stomach are not yet separated ; and in these animals rumination does iiot 

 take place till they begin to eat solid food. It is in this fourth stomach, which is called the reed, that 

 the proper digestion of the food is performed, and it is here that the coagulation of the milk takes 

 place ; on which account the coats of this stomach are employed in dairies, under the name of rennet, 

 to obtain curd from milk. 



A regular gradation in the structure of ruminating stomachs may be traced in the different 

 genera of this family of quadrupeds. In those with horns, as the bullock and the sheep, there are 

 two preparatory stomachs for retaining the food previous to rumination, a third for receiving it 

 after it has undergone this process, and a fourth for effecting its digestion. Ruminants without 

 horns, as the camel, dromedary, and llama, have only one preparatory stomach before rumination, 

 answering the purpose of the two first stomachs of the bullock ; a second, which takes no share in 

 digestion, being employed merely as a reservoir of water ; a third, exceedingly small, and of which 



