DIGESTION OP FOOD. 



327 



The reticulum, so called from the peculiar arrsuagement of 

 the mucus memibrane, is usually regarded as a receptacle for 

 water more especially ; however, this stomach is to be regarded 

 both anatomically and physiologically as a subdivision of the 

 first, or at all events as equivalent to that. 



The quantity of food that it can hold in the ox is enormous, 

 (150 to 200 pounds), a condition of things advantageous in an 



Pig. 870.— Omasum and abomasum of ox cat open (Smith). A, psalterium, with open- 

 ing between it and the reticulum at B; D, foldings (plicae) of mucous membrane 

 at C, fourth stomach. 



animal feeding upon substances so poor in nutritive material in 

 proportion to their bulk and requiring so much mastication to 

 fit them to be acted on by the digestive juices. The reaction 

 of the first two stomachs is alkaline. 



In the camel tribe, water cells ax-e arranged in parallel order 

 in the rumen. The edges of these are provided with muscular 



