EXPERIMENTS ON DIGESTION. 
519 
In another that had been fed on oats, the maniplus was filled with a 
somewhat dry thick paste, of a greyish-brown colour, composed of 
the farinaceous substance of the oat. 
The contents of the stomach reddened the tincture of turnsole 
in the calf, the ox, and the sheep. On chemical analysis, they 
contained free carbonic acid in oxen and sheep fed on straw. Free 
acetic acid in sheep fed on oats or straw, and also in calves. Car- 
bonate of ammonia by the distillation of the contents in oxen 
and sheep fed on grass. Acetate of ammonia in oxen and sheep 
fed on straw, and in a calf. Albumen was only found in calves and 
sheep fed on oats. Matter precipitated by the chloruret of tin was 
abundant in the maniplus of oxen and sheep. Matter which was 
reddened by hydrochloric acid was produced by distillation of the 
contents of the maniplus of oxen. Incineration of the contents of 
this stomach produced the following fixed salts : 
Alkaline Alkaline Alkaline Alkaline Carbonate 
Carbonate. Phosphate. Sulphate. Chloruret. of Lime. 
The ox 3 5 1 3 3 
Sheep fed on grass... 3 5 15 1 
do. on straw 3 4 2 4 1 
do. on oats 3 5 15 1 
Phosphate 
of Lime. 
1 
4 
4 
4 
The office which the maniplus discharges in digestion seems to 
be this : The food, broken down by the second mastication, and a 
second time saturated with saliva, is spread between the numerous 
leaves of this viscus, where it undergoes, during the contraction of 
its muscular tunic, a pressure which forces out the liquid part, and 
propels it into the abomasum. What strengthens this conjecture is, 
that the layers of food interposed between the leaves of this viscus 
are almost dry. The portions remaining gradually become decom- 
posed to such a degree, that the numerous hard papillae which are 
so numerously scattered over the leaves, gradually comminute or 
pulverize them, and so they are carried away. It also is not un- 
likely that the portions of food which have been dissolved in the 
alkaline liquid of the first two stomachs are absorbed in this. 
Finally, the parietes of the stomach seem also to secrete a fluid 
possessing acid properties. 
The Changes which the Food undergoes in the Abomasum . — The 
food is always found in this stomach converted into a bouillie more 
or less liquid, as has been observed by the earliest physiologists. 
The abomasum of the calves which we have examined has 
been entirely filled with coagulated milk exhaling a sour odour. 
There was also a pale yellow liquid, with some softened masses of 
curd. In that of oxen we have found a soft bouillie , nearly fluid, 
of a brown-yellow colour, containing some bits of hay, and grains 
