Cattle 1853 - Lewis Family Farm

PECULIARITIES OF THE BRAIN OF THE OX. 163
with the temporal bone, and contributes to the strength of the
part.
The Temporal bones.—These bones (17, p. 143 and 144,) have no
stress upon them in cattle ;
are small, deep in the temporal fossa, and
destitute of the squamous suture. The most important difference is
the form of the superficial cavity which receives the head of the lower
jaw, and which is peculiarly adapted to the lateral grinding motion
of rumination.
The Occipital lone.—This bone is, in the ox, deprived of almost all
importance. There is no crest, no tuberosity, and very small con-
dyles, for attachment to the neck ; and even its base, although a lit-
tle widened, is much curtailed in length. . It, however, still contains
the great foramen through which the spinal marrow escapes from
the skull (t, p. 142, and 5 and I, p. 144). There are two foramina
for the passage of nerves.
. The Sphenoid and Ethmoid bones are of little importance here.
THE BRAIN.
All these bones unite to form the cranial cavity in which the
-brain is contained. It is surrounded by membranes. Comparing the
bulk of the two animals, the brain of the ox is not more than, onehalf
the size of that of the horse. The medullary substance which
forms the roots of the nerves is as large, and some of the nerves, and
particularly the olfactory nerve, or that of smell, are as much developed
; the deficiency is in the cineritious part—that part connected
with the intellectual principle. The medullary substance is that
by which impressions made by surrounding objects are conveyed to
the brain, and received there, and the volitions of the mind transmitted,
and motion given to every part : the cineritious is that portion where
the impressions are received, and registered, and pondered upon, and
made the means of intellectual improvement, and from which the
mandates of the will proceed. The senses of the ox are as acute as
those of the horse ; he sees as clearly, hears as quickly, and has the
sense of smelling in greater perfection ; but he has not half the sagacity.
He partly has it not, because he does not receive the educa-
1 ion of the horse ; but more, because nature, by diminishing the bulk
of the intellectual portion of the brain, has deprived him of the power
of much improvement. Yet the difference is in degree, and not in
kind. He possesses sufficient intellect to qualify him for the situation
in which nature has placed him.
PECULIARITIES OF THE BKAIN OF THE OX.
Of the peculiarities of the brain of the ox we will say little, for
they are unconnected with that which is the object of our treatise,
the useful knowledge of the animal. The posterior part of the
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