respecting the Water it contains, & c. 363 
from which the food may be regurgitated along the canal, 
continued from the oesophagus. There is indeed no other 
mode by which this can be effected, since it is hardly possible 
for the animal to separate small portions from the suface of 
the mass of dry food in the first stomach, and force it up into 
the mouth. 
It was also found that when the bullock had been four days 
without water before it was killed, which is by no means un- 
common, the food in the second stomach was very moist, 
while that in the first was very dry ; and when the animal was 
killed 24 hours after having had water, by making an open- 
ing into the second stomach before the other parts were 
disturbed, nearly a quart of water ran out of it, little mixed 
with solid food. The man of the slaughter-house also men- 
tioned, upon being asked where the water was met with, 
that it was always found in the honeycomb’d bag. The 
water must be received into this stomach while the animal is 
drinking, for it could not afterwards be conveyed there from 
the first, as it would naturally drain through the food and 
remain at the bottom of its cavity. 
The second stomach, by receiving the water, is enabled to 
have its contents always in a proper state of moisture, to admit 
of its being readily thrown up into the mouth for rumination, 
which appears to be the true office of this stomach, and not to 
receive the food after that process has been gone through, as 
is very generally believed, for in that case the cud would be 
mixed and lost in the general contents of this cavity, instead 
of being forwarded to the true digesting stomach. 
When the food is swallowed the second time, the orifice of 
the third stomach is brought forwards by the muscular bands, 
