Cattle 1853 - Lewis Family Farm

THE TEETH. 187
bone. This pad is of a somewhat more fibrous and elastic nature
than the bars, and stands in the place of upper incisor or cutting
teeth. The grass is collected and rolled together by means of the
tongue ; is firmly held between the lower cutting-teeth and the pad,
the cartilaginous upper lip assisting in this ; and then by a sudden
nodding motion of the head, in which the pterigoid muscles are the
chief agents, the little roll bf herbage is partly both torn and cut.
The intention of this singular method of . gathering the food, it is
difficult satisfatorily to explain. It is peculiar to ruminants, who
have one large stomach, in which the food is kept as a kind of reservoir
until it is ready for the action of the other stomachs. While
kept there it is in a state of maceration, exposed to the united influence
of moisture and warmth, and the consequence is, that a spe-
cies of decomposition sometimes commences, and gas is extricated.
That this should not take place in the natural process of retention
and maceration, nature possibly established this mechanism for the
first gathering of the food. It is impossible that half of that which
is thus procured can be fairly cut through ; part will be torn up by
the roots ; many a root mingles with the blades of grass ; and these
have sometimes much earth about them. The beast, however,
seems not to regard this ; he eats on, dirt and all, until his paunch
is filled.
That this earth should be gathered and swallowed, was the meaning
of this mechanism. A portion of absorbent earth is found in
every soil, sufficient not only to prevent the evil that would result
from occasional decomposition, by neutralizing the acid principle as
rapidly as it is evolved, but perhaps, by its presence, preventing
that decomposition from taking place. Hence the eagerness with
which stall-fed cattle, who have not the opportunity of plucking up
the roots of grass, evince for earth. When decomposition commences
and the acescent principle begins to be developed, the animal feels
uneasiness on that account, and has recourse to the earth ; and the
acid uniting itself to the earth, the uneasy feeling is relieved, and a
purgative neutral salt manufactured in the paunch.
THE TEETH.
The mouth contains the principal agents in mastication, the teeth.
The mouth of the ox when full contains thirty-two teeth ; eight incisors
in the lower jaw, and six molars in each jaw, above and below,
and on either side. The incisor teeth are admirably adapted to perform
their function. If there be no corresponding ones opposed,
but merely an elastic pad, they must possess an edge of considerable
sharpness in order to perform this half-cutting, hajf-tearing process.
With a blunt edge there could be no cutting at all ; but all the
grass would be torn up by the roots, the pasture destroyed, and the
animal choked with earth. The part of the tooth above the gum is