56 FEEDING ANIMALS. 



the food receives a few strokes of the jaws, and is mixed 

 with a quantity of saliva varying according to the hard or 

 fibrous character of the aliment, it is swallowed and passes 

 into the first and second, the third or even the fourth 

 stomach. Mourens first showed this on the sheep, and 

 his observations have been fully corroborated by subsequent 

 observers. 1st. He fed green lucern to a sheep, and killing 

 it immediately after, found this aliment mainly in the 

 paunch, a small quantity in the reticulum, and none in the 

 third and fourth stomachs. 2d. He fed oats with the same 

 results. 3d. Small pieces of roots swallowed without mas- 

 tication were found only in the first two stomachs. 4th. 

 Finally, after feeding pulped roots, he found the greater 

 part in the rumen, but a considerable amount also in the 

 second, third and fourth stomachs. It follows that while 

 all coarse, bulky or fibrous aliment passes at once into the 

 first two stomachs, finely divided food may gain the third 

 or even the fourth without retention in either of the 

 preceding ones. 



"Liquids have been found to follow a similar course 

 with finely divided moist food, the greater part passing at 

 once into the rumen and reticulum, while a certain amount 

 passes at once through the cesophagean demi-canal to the 

 third and fourth stomachs. Another feature of the passage 

 of liquids is the propulsion of the fluid from the second 

 stomach through the demi-canal into the third and fourth. 

 This is effected through a series of contractions of the 

 reticulum, and takes place while drinking is going on, the 

 organ being rapidly filled up by the water descending from 

 the mouth, as often as it may be emptied by its contrac- 

 tions. This may also serve to explain how liquids and 

 finely divided food pass on from the first two stomachs to 

 the third and fourth, without having been returned to the 

 mouth for rumination. The enormous accumulation of 

 food in the paunch is surprising. It is no uncommon 



