Cattle 1853 - Lewis Family Farm

W4 CATTLE.
is much contracted, and which, indeed, partly discharges the function
of a sphincter muscle.
g is a portion of the duodenum, or first intestine.
h. The place where the biliary and pancreatic ducts- enter the
duodenum.
i. A stilett is here supposed to be passed through that portion of
the oesophagean canal (the very beginning of it) through which the
gullet communicates with the paunch.
k. A stilett is here supposed to run through that part of the
canal by means of which the gullet communicates with the second
stomach.
I. A stilett here passes below the last, and under the oesophagean
canal, showing the situation of the direct communication between the
rumen and the reticulum.
m. The supposed direction of the oesophagean canal to the thirdstomach,
over the roofs of the paunch" and the second stomach.
n. Its passage through the third stomach, and entrance into the
fourth.
THE CHANGES OF" THE FOOD IN THE DIFFERENT STOMACHS.
The ox rapidly and somewhat greedily crops the herbage, which
undergoes little or no mastication, but being rolled into a pellet, and
as it passes along the pharynx being somewhat enveloped by the
mucus there secreted, is swallowed. The pellet, being hard and
rapidly driven along by the action of the muscles of the oesophagus,
falls upon the anterior portion of the oesophagean canal, and its
curiously formed floor ; and either by the force with which it strikes
on these pillars, or by some instinctive influence, they are separated,
and the pellet falls into the rumen, which is found immediately under
the base of the gullet, as represented a"t c, p. 288, and i, p. 291.
The food, however, which thus enters the rumen does not remain
stationary in the place where it falls. It has been seen that the walls
of this stomach are supplied with muscles of considerable power, and
which run longitudinally and transversely, and in various directions
all over it, and by means of them the contents of the paunch are
gradually conveyed through all its compartments. At first the food
travels with comparative rapidity, for the muscles of the stomach act
strongly, and the papillae with which it is lined easily yield and suffer
it to pass on ; but, the rumen being filled, or the animal ceasing to
graze, the progress of the food is retarded. The muscles act with less
power, and the contents of the stomach with greater difficulty find
their way over the partitions of the different sacs, and, at the same
time, probably, the papillae exert their erectile power, and oppose a
new obstacle.
If a considerable opening b - jut into the flank, immediately over the