480 
VEETEBEATA. 
are always four in number, the first three of which are so disposed that the food may enter into 
either of them at the will of the animal, the oesophagus terminating at the point of communi- 
cation.* 
' 1 
4. Eennet. 2. Honey-Comb. 1. Paunch. 
STOMACH OF THE SHEEP. 
The first and largest stomach is named the Paunch, f It receives a large quantity of vegetable 
matter, coarsely bruised by the first mastication. From this it passes into the second, termed the 
Honeij-comh Bag^ the parietes or inner sides of which are laminated like the cells of bees. This 
second stomach, very small and globular, seizes the food, and moistens and compresses it into 
little pellets or cuds, which afterward successively return to the mouth to be rechewed. The ani- 
mal remains at rest during this operation, which lasts until all the herbage first taken into the 
paunch has been subjected to it. The aliment thus remasticated descends directly into the third 
stomach, termed the Feuillet, on account of its parietes being longitudinally laminated, somewhat 
like the leaves of a book, from which it descends into the fourth, or Caillette, or Rennet-hag^ the 
coats of which are wrinkled, and which is the true organ of digestion, analogous to the simple 
stomach of animals in general. In the young of the Euminants, Avhile they continue to subsist on 
the milk of the mother, the caillette is the largest of the four. The paunch is only developed by 
receiving great quantities of herbage, which finally give it enormous volume. These animals 
have the intestinal canal very long, but there are few enlargements in the great intestines. The 
* Blumenbach observes that the first three stomachs are connected with each other, and with a groove-like contin- 
uation of the oesophagus, in a very remarkable way. The latter tube enters just where the paunch and the second 
and third stomachs approach each other ; it is then continued with the groove, which ends in the third stomach. 
This groove is therefore open to the tirst stomachs, which lie to its right and left. But the thick prominent lips which 
form the margin of the groove admit of being drawn together so as to form a complete canal, which then constitutes 
a direct continuation of the oesophagus into the third stomach. The functions of this very singular part will vary ac- 
cording as we consider it in the state of a groove or of a closed canal. In the first case, the grass, &c., is passed, after 
a very slight degree of mastication, into the paunch, as into a reservoir. Thence it goes in small portions into the 
second stomach, from which, after a further maceration, it is propelled, by a kind of antiperistaltic motion, into the 
oesophagus, and thus returns into the mouth. It is here ruminated and again swallowed, when the groove is shut, 
and the morsel of food, after this second mastication, is thereby conducted directly into the third stomach. During 
the shoi't time which it probably stays in this situation between the folds of the internal coat, it is still further pre- 
jjared for digestion, which process is completed in the fourth or true digestive stomach. 
It is further said that the shutting of the groove- when the food is again swallowed after rumination, supposes a 
power of voluntary motion in this part, and indeed, it is added, the influence of the will in the whole affair of rumi- 
nation is incontestable. It is not confined to any particular time, since the animal can delay it according to circum- 
stances when the paunch is quite full. It has been expressly stated of some men, who have had the power of rumi- 
nating — instances of which are not very rare — that it was quite voluntary with them. " I have known," continues 
Blumenbach, "two men who ruminated their vegetable food; both assured me that they had a real enjoyment in 
doing this, which has also been observed of others ; and one of them had the power of doing it or leaving it alone, 
according to circumstances." 
t Various names are given to the different stomachs of the Ruminantia: the first, or Paunch, is called Bumen', 
the second, or Honey-comli Bag, is called Bonmt, King's Hood, Reticuhivi, Olhda, &c. ; the third, or Feuillet, meaning 
two leaves of a book, is called Many-plus, Psalterium, dc. ; the fourth, or Bennet, is called Abomasus, Faliscus, do. 
