50 FEEDING ANIMALS. 



classes of animals, and that these varied forms bear a strict 

 relation to the habits of the animal and the condition in 

 which it lives, says : 



" The flesh feeders possess a very capacious stomach, in 

 which the highly nitrogenous food is long retained and 

 digested by the secretions of the gastric glands. The 

 bowels are short and of small capacity, in accordance with 

 the restricted amount of other ingredients in the food 

 which are soluble in the intestinal liquids. In the herbiv- 

 ora, on the other hand, which subsist on food rich in 

 carbo-hydrates and comparatively poor in albuminoids, the 

 true digesting stomach is small and the intestines enor- 

 mously long and capacious. The capacity of the stomach 

 of the dog is three-fifths of that of the entire gastro- 

 intestinal canal, whereas that of the horse is only about two- 

 twenty-fifths of the abdominal part of the alimentary 

 tube. 



" At first sight the ruminant appears to be an exception 

 to tjiis rule, as the gastric cavities amount to no less 

 than seven-tenths of the abdominal part of the digestive 

 canal ; but this idea is dispelled by the consideration that 

 the fourth or true digestive stomach, which alone corre- 

 sponds to that of the horse or dog, is relatively as small as 

 in the solipede. The first three stomachs are mainly 

 macerating and triturating cavities, in which the coarse 

 and imperfectly masticated herbage is stored, triturated 

 and partially dissolved, while waiting for the second mas- 

 tication, or for its reception by the fourth or true stomach. 



"First Stomach. Of the four compartments or stom- 

 achs, the first (paunch 9 rumen) is incomparably the largest. 

 It has an average capacity of 250 quarts, in the ox, and 

 makes up about nine- tenths of the mass of the four 

 stomachs. It occupies the entire left side of the abdomen, 

 from the short ribs in front to the hip bones behind, so 



