16 



LIVE-STOCK JUDGING 



quently called into requisition. The delicate texture of 

 the so-called tenderloin or fillet of beef is due to its being 

 derived from a group of muscles, the chief use of which 

 is in rearing, and since the unsexed bovine rarely rears, 

 these muscles are so seldom called into play as to leave 

 them practically undeveloped, and therefore very tender. 



Physiology 



19. Prehension of food. — The taking of food comes 

 first in an enumeration of the physiological processes by 



means of which ani- 

 mals are productive. 

 The chief prehensile 

 organ in the horse is 

 the lip, in cattle and 

 sheep the tongue, and 

 in the hog the snout. 

 20. Digestion. — In 

 the mouth the food is 

 comminuted by masti- 

 cation so as to be more 

 completely accessible 

 to the digestive juices, 

 and is acted upon by 

 the saliva which com- 

 mences the digestion of some of the starches. This is 

 continued after the food is swallowed into the stomach. 

 Here also the gastric juices, with their enzymes, and the 

 hydrochloric acid, continue the conversion of the raw 

 materials of nutrition presented in the food into forms 

 in which they may be assimilated into the blood stream 

 and become available to the tissues and to such secreting 

 organs as the udder. Digestion is completed in the small 



Fig. 7. — Surface of mucous membrane of 

 the intestine. Showing villi with central 

 lacteal duct and blood vessels, and on 

 the surface the absorbing epithelial cells. 



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