472 ANATOMY OF VERTEBRATES. 



than in the Ox : in the Goat they are elongate and spatulate, but 

 become shorter as they approach the reticulum. 



There is more variety, however, among the horned Ruminants, 

 in the form and depth of the cells of the reticulum, fig. 362, c, 

 and these modifications mainly relate to differences in the power 

 of retaining fluids. The structure of the Reindeer's stomach 

 exemplifies this relation : the snow which must be swallowed 

 with the lichens through a great part of the year would render 

 any reservoir for water unnecessary, and the cells in the reticulum 

 are remarkably shallow. The same structure also obtains in the 

 Giraffe sustained by juicy leaves and buds : the cells are not, 

 however, as has been stated, entirely wanting; but their hexa- 

 gonal boundaries appear as mere raised lines supporting a row of 

 pyramidal papillae larger than those in the interspaces : for any 

 imaginable use they might have been arranged in any other, even 

 the most irregular, forms ; but that pattern is closely adhered to, 

 which grouping together a number of cells in the least possible 

 space renders necessary in other Ruminants, and which is almost 

 universal in nature. In the Goat some of the hexagonal cells are 

 divided into smaller cells. In the Ox the deep cells are chiefly 

 disposed between broad parallel septa: and these are also divided 

 into smaller cells. 



The food is subject to a rotatory movement in the paunch, 1 

 and is brought, successively, in this course, to be moistened by the 

 fluid of the reticulum. If a Ruminant be alarmed in his pasture 

 or browsing ground, it can transport the mass of hastily swallowed 

 food in the paunch, as in a receptacle, to a place of safety and 

 concealment, and there, the animal, at rest, can complete the act 

 of digestion. This is done by the abstraction of the softer portion 

 of the macerated food, successively brought within the grasp of 

 the muscular walls of the groove, g, fig. 362, where it is moulded 

 into a bolus and transferred by an antiperistaltic action of the 

 muscular coat of the oesophagus to the mouth. It is there subjected 

 to a longer and better process of mastication than at first ; and, 

 being mixed more thoroughly with the saliva and other fluids of 

 the mouth, it is a second time swallowed. The soft mass is now 

 less fit to push its way out of the oesophageal groove; but, the mus- 

 cular walls being stimulated to contract, they close the entry to 



1 The arrangement of the 'outer hairs in the agglutinated masses called 'aegagro- 

 piles,' occasionally found in the paunch, is the effect of this movement : the peculiar 

 concretions called ' bezoars' are most commonly found in the paunch of Antelopes; 

 and are probably due to the long sojourn in recesses of that receptacle of parts of the 

 gummy shrubs on which they browse. 



