THE OX AND THE DAIRY. 



or plicated compartment, termed manyplies, or manyplus, 

 whence, after compression between the foliations of that re- 

 ceptacle, it passes through a valvular orifice into the fourth ; 

 viz. the rud, or abomasuin, which is the true digestive 

 stomach. 



Now, the suckling calf does not ruminate; for, while 

 nourished by the mother's milk, the process cannot be accom- 

 plished, and is not requisite. The proportion which the dif- 

 ferent compartments of the stomach, at this early age, bear to 

 each other, is, consequently, very different to that which after- 

 wards obtains, when the aliment is changed from milk to 

 herbage. The huge paunch, for instance, is, at this early 

 period, far less capacious than the fourth stomach, or rud, 

 which is indeed, at this time, the largest of the compartments, 

 and receives at once the milk as it is swallowed ; here, by the 

 action of the gastric juice, the milk is curdled previously to 

 digestion It is the inner membrane of this portion of the 

 stomach which is salted and dried, and under the name of 

 rennet, used in making cheese : its effect resides in the gastric 

 juice with which it is imbued. 



In both sexes the head is armed with horns (we of course 

 except the polled domestic breeds of cattle), and these horns 

 consist of an external layer of corneous fibres compacted 

 together, and sheathing a hollow or cancellous bony core, 

 continued laterally from a bold occipito-frontal ridge. Hence 

 are oxen termed hollow-horned ruminants; together with 

 antelopes, goats, &c., in contradistinction to deer : the pro- 

 gressive increase of the horns is marked by successive ridges, 

 or rings, at their base ; oxen have neither suborbital sinuses 

 nor interdigital pits (as the sheep), nor inguinal pores : their 

 form is heavy and massive ; their stature generally large ; the 

 limbs are low and strong ; the haunches wide ; the shoulders 

 thick ; the head is large ; the forehead or chaffron expanded ; 

 the muzzle, excepting in the subgenus (Ovibos, musk-ox, for 

 example), is broad, naked, and moist ; the tongue is rough, 

 with hard, horny papillae, directed backwards, and assists 

 greatly in the act of grazing; the neck is thick, deep, com- 

 pressed laterally, carried horizontally, and furnished with a 

 pendent dewlap ; the spinous processes of the anterior dorsal 

 vertebras at the withers are very long and stout. All the Ox 

 tribe are gregarious in their habits ; and no quarter of the 

 globe (Australia excepted) is destitute of its indigenous spe- 

 cies, existing in a state of freedom. They roam over hills or 



