Cattle 1853 - Lewis Family Farm

THE EXTERIOR OF THE STOMACHS, 291
different sizes and forms in different parts of the rumen. Toward the
longitudinal bands or duplicatures they are small, and thinly set
they are more numerous and larger toward the centre of the compartments
; and largest of all in the bottom of the posterior and most
capacious sac. In every part of the rumen they are more thickly
set, and broad and strong toward the centre or bottom of each compartment.
They are also harder and blacker in these places. When
regarded in different compartments, they appear to be bent or inclined
in different directions ; but when they are more closely examined,
they are all inclined in the direction which the food takes in its passage
through the various divisions of the rumen. They are evidently
erectile, and may sometimes bristle up and oppose the passage of the
food ; while at other times they yield and bend, and suffer it to pass
with little or no obstruction. Some have imagined that these are
glandular bodies, and that they secrete a peculiar fluid ; others confine
the glandular apparatus to the tissue between the cutioular coSt
;