Kuminantia.- 
-JIAMMALIA.- 
-Ruminantia. 
carried down the gullet, where, on arriving at the 
lower part, the lips of the muscular channel, placed at 
the entrance of the first three stomachs, separate so as 
to insure its passage into the paunch. In like manner, 
subsequent to the act of drinking, the margins of the 
oesophageal groove open, and the water is conveyed into 
the cells of the reticulum. In the camels a part of the 
fluid passes into the first cavity, there to he retained 
by the great water-cells, as a special provision against 
those contingencies which their mode of existence 
involves. While the coarse vegetable food is being 
macerated by the moisture secreted from the walls of 
the paunch — and probably also from the water taken 
in by the mouth, some of which may have entered the 
cavity — portions of the indigestible mass are transmitted 
into the second stomach for further maceration, and 
from thence into the grooved canal above described, 
to be here moulded into the form of pellets, and 
returned to the mouth by a kind of reversed peristaltic 
action. The softened bolus thus brought back into 
the mouth, is destined to receive a thorough and com- 
plete remastication, constituting that part of the process 
familiarly termed “chewing the cud.” This phenomenon 
is accompanied with an action of the jaws which dillers 
somewhat in particular species. Thus, it has been 
shown by Professor Owen that in the camels the bolus 
is triturated alternately from side to side ; whereas the 
action of the teeth in the horned ruminants, including 
the girafte, is always in one direction — it may be from 
right to left or left to right — occasioned by the rotatory 
motion of the jaw. The necessary reduction of the 
aliment having been accomplished, it is again trans- 
ferred to the stomach in a pulpy semifluid condition ; 
but this time, instead of entering the first or second 
cavities, it passes directly along the now-closed oeso- 
phageal groove into the third stomach, or manyplies. 
In this viscus the superfluous moisture is supposed to 
be absorbed before the bolus is ultimately transmitted 
into the fourth stomach, in which organ the true diges- 
tive act remains to he fulfilled. In the newly-born 
ruminant, the first, second, and third stomachs are 
very incompletely developed; and no chewing of the 
cud behig necessary, the food passes uninterruptedly 
into the fourth. In the calf a peculiar organic acid is 
secreted by the lining membrane of the true stomacli, 
which, it is well known, possesses the singular power 
of converting the albumen of milk into curd and whey. 
In the young, as well as in the adult animal, various 
foreign substances are occasionally found in the paunch, 
and sometimes in the reticiflum. The concretionary 
masses are either made up of hair, vegetable fibres, 
or calcareous particles, generally agglomerated to- 
gether in a rounded or oval form. The hairy balls 
found in the calf and cow result from the licking of 
their own hides, or tho: o of ethers ; and the individual 
hairs, on being transferred into the stomach, are col- 
lected together, and rolled by the action of this organ 
into the characteristic shapes above mentioned. In 
the camel we find them in the form of pedunculated 
pellets, strung together in gi-ape-like bunches. In the 
chamois, the formation of the so-called bezoar stones, 
takes places in consequence of a partiality for saline 
matters, wliich the animal gratifies by licking fragments 
of rock containing saltpetre. Thus a variety of earthy 
and silicious particles are at the same time swallowed, 
and by the secretions and peristaltic action of the 
stomach, are agglutinated together, and converted into 
curious pebble-like formations. 
Before leaving this part of the subject, we deem it 
right to notice our discovery of two very remarkable 
peculiarities occurring in the alimentary canal of the 
aberrant genus Camelopardalis. The first of these con- 
sists in the presence of pouch-like folds in connection 
with the compound glands of the intestine ; whilst the 
second is a similar, but far more striking development 
of the glands, situated close to the opening by which 
the small intestine communicates vdth the large colon 
and coecum. This structure we believe to be altogether 
unique throughout the entire mammalian series; and 
although we first directed attention to it at the Glasgow 
Fig. 55. 
Remarkable compound gland situated at tho junction of the large 
and small intestines of tlie Giraffe. 
meeting of the British Association in 1855, and have 
subsequently given details in the third volume of tho 
new series of the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, 
and in the article “ Ruminantia,” published in Dr. 
Todd’s “ Cyclopaedia of Anatomy and Physiology,” wc 
make no apology for again specially inviting the atten- 
