386 RUMINATION, AND THE 
out of the question many exaggerations and false reports, the 
public health is not compromised by the existence of this disease 
among the milch cows of Paris. 
Annales de VAgriculture Fran^aise, 
RUMINATION, AND THE FUNCTIONS OF THE 
STOMACH IN RUMINANTS. 
Bij Mr. Lucas, Liverpool, 
Whatever pleasure the aspirant to a knowledge of veteri¬ 
nary science may receive from the study of the physiology of 
digestion in the horse, yet when he becomes acquainted with 
that of the ruminant, he must be struck with the superior claims 
it has to be considered as one of Nature’s most beautiful works. 
Here a wide and luxuriant field is open to him for research: 
and his investigation is sure to be attended by the acquire¬ 
ment of knowledge, interesting and important. The considera' 
tion of a structure so complicated, yet so beautifully adapted for 
the functions it has to perform, must fill every thinking mind 
with admiration and wonder. 
The first diiFerence of structure we perceive from that of the 
horse, as it regards their digestive organs, is, that the ruminant 
has no incisor teeth in the upper jaw, their place being supplied 
by a densely fibrous and highly elastic pad. By means of the 
teeth in the lower jaw, and the pad in the upper one, assisted 
by the lips, which are longer, more muscular, harder and firmer 
in texture than those of the horse, the herbage is partly cut, 
partly torn up by the roots : it is slightly, or scarcely at all 
masticated, but is mixed with the saliva, and formed into a 
pellet, and swallowed. 
At the base of the oesophagus, however, there is a great pecu¬ 
liarity of structure. As it approaches its termination, this tube 
enlarges and becomes thicker and stronger in its parietes; and 
when it reaches the stomach, it abuts upon two powerful mus¬ 
cular pillars, which, when open, leave a passage of communica¬ 
tion between the oesophagus and rumen, and also with the 
reticulum; and when shut, form the floor of the asophagean 
canal which leads on to the third and fourth stomachs. 1 will 
consider the physiology of this structure when I have explained 
that of the stomachs, which are in the ruminant four, viz. the 
rumen or paunch, the reticulum, the maniplus or manifolds, and 
the abomasum. 
