THE OX AND THE DAIRY. 



them and the animals of all other orders. They have cloven 

 hoofs ; and they are destitute of incisors, or cutting teeth, in 

 the upper jaw. With regard to the hoof we may observe that, 

 as in the horse, the terminal bone of the toe is incased with 

 horn ; but the horse has only a single series of phalangal 

 bones, the ruminants two ; and hence the expression cloven. 

 But besides these there are, in some groups, as the deer, an 

 extralateral toe on each side, consisting of three minute pha- 

 langal bones, supported by a small stylet. As in the horse, 

 the canon-bone is single, but generally shows, more or less, 

 by a longitudinal furrow, that in an early stage it consisted of 

 two portions, first coalescing, and at length becoming ossified 

 into one. 



With respect to the teeth, though there are no incisors in 

 the upper jaw, the gum is hardened, forming a fibrous and 

 elastic pad, fitted to sustain the pressure of the lower incisors, 

 eight in number, the position of which is rather oblique than 

 vertical. The molars are six in number on each side, above 

 and below. Of these the first three are preceded by milk, or 

 deciduous teeth ; the three posterior are originally permanent. 

 Their surface is marked by two pairs of crescentic ridges. In 

 the lower jaw, their crescents have the convexity outwards ; 

 in the upper jaw. the reverse. These crescents, as they wear 

 down by use, show a centre of bone surrounded by a coat of 

 enamel. In general, there are no canine teeth : these exist, 

 however, in the upper jaw of the camel, the llama, the male 

 of the musk-deer, and chevrotains, and the male of many true 

 deer. 



The act of rumination, or chewing the cud, supposes a 

 peculiarly complicated structure of the stomach, to be more 

 fully explained hereafter. We may, however, observe, that 

 the four distinct cavities, or receptacles, are so arranged that 

 the coarsely -ground herbage received into the first large cavity, 

 or paunch, is thence gradually propelled into the second ; 

 viz., the hood, or honey-comb, through a valvular communi- 

 cation. Here it is compacted into small balls, which, while 

 the animal reposes at its ease, and in evident enjoyment, are 

 returned seriatim to the mouth, by a sort of spasmodic action, 

 and are thoroughly re-masticated. The aliment thus finely 

 ground is re-swallowed, but instead of being carried into the 

 paunch, it is turned aside in its passage down the gullet, or 

 oesophagus, by a voluntary closure of the muscular edges of 

 the entrance into the paunch, and so carried into the third, 



