HISTORY OF QUADRUPEDS. 



RUMINATING ANIMALS. 



THE various animals of this kind are entirely 

 confined to grain and herbage for their nourish- 

 ment and support ; it is therefore necessary that 

 they should be enabled to receive a large quantity 

 into the stomach, as well as to retain it a consider- 

 able time before it be reduced to proper chyle: for 

 this purpose, their intestines are remarkably long 

 and capacious, and formed into a variety of fold- 

 ings. They are furnished with no less than four 

 stomachs. The food, after mastication, is thrown 

 into the first stomach, where it remains for some 

 time ; after which it is forced up again into the 

 mouth, and undergoes a second chewing : it is then 

 sent directly into the second stomach, and gradu- 

 ally passes into the third and fourth ; from whence 

 it is transmitted through the convolutions of the 

 intestines. By this conformation, ruminating ani- 

 mals are enabled to devour large quantities of 

 vegetable aliment, to retain it long in their bowels, 

 and consequently, extract from it a quantity of nu- 

 tritious matter sufficient for their growth and sup- 

 port. 



The great obligations we are under to those of 

 this class, render them objects of the highest im- 

 portance to us. We are nourished with their milk, 

 we are supported by their flesh, and we are clothed 

 and warmed with their fleeces : their harmlessness 

 and innocence endear them to us, and claim from 

 us that protection which their natures seem to re- 

 quire : and, in return, they supply us with the 

 necessaries and comforts of life. 



