Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1871-02-24
The Organs Of digestion in Cattle.

THE food received by all animals affords,
by the process of digestion, nutritious
fluid Of a milky color, called chyle, which
Is absorbed into the system, and soon EN-.
ters the circulating mass OF blood, and
becomes itself converted into blood I;
thereby repairing Che waste that this fluid
suffers in nourishing the body, and also
supplying the materials fer all the strange
ly various secretions, The organs of III.
gestion in neat cattle are more complicated
than in the horse, or in man; for the lat
ter have only one stomach, but these have
four stomachs. This probably renders
them more liable, particularly in their
present domesticated state, to disease of
the digestive organs.
The gullet is q thick, heshy canal, that
receives the food from the mouth, in its
passage into the first stomach, and having
afterwards returned IL to the mouth for
the purpose of re-mastication, once more
receives it, and conveys 1t into o canal at
its base.
The grass is cropped, and having been
| slightly chewed, is covered by the mucus
of the mouth, and formed by the tongue
into kind Of pellet that can be swallow
ed. II then passed down the gullet and
arrives at this canal If this canal were
or third stomach; but its floor is curiously
constructed II Is formed OF two rounded
muscular bands, which may be held to.
gether or diyided-which may form tube
through which liquid viii scarcely pene.
trate, and so carry on the food to the third
stomach, or which may divide and suffer
| it to fail through into the rumen, or
paunch, of the roof of which, and also of
| the TetictRuDl, or second stomach, these
bands form part.
The pellet of food passes down, and
partly by its own weight, and assisted by
the contraction of the muscles of the gull
let, and its course also, in some measure,
depending on the pleasure of the animal
| it breaks through the floor aud enters into
the pauuch and there it remains, and
pellet after pellet descends uatil the paunch
| is quite filed. The animal then lies com.
fortably down. The food has all this
time been macerating in the pauncb,
the inner membrance of which is lined
with numerous little pTominences or Ca
| ptllary glands that secrete an alkaline fluid,
| which prevents or limits the process of
| fermentation, when fresh succuient vege-
! tables are exposed to the united influence
of warmth and moisture. While this has
been going forward, the muscles which
| compose one of the coats Of the paunch
have been constantly acting, and the food
| has travelled through the various compart-
ments of the stomach, and every portion
| of IL has been exposed to the influence OF
this fluid and finally, that which was
swallowed first, or which had been in the
stomach many an hour before, and which
has been considerably sosened, and duly
prepared, is ready to present Itself first tc
be returned. aaI r..l -f
By slight convulsive act, portion suf
ticient TO form pellet of the proper siz'
to be returned, passes on from the pauncl
into the. second stomach, which is con
nected with the first under the floor Of thi
canal. This stomach is possessed of
strongly muscular coat, and Il contracts
Immediately on this mass, presses out tn,
fluid which it contains, and sends it alonl
the canal through the third into the fourtl
stomach at the same time it forms tn
more solid part into a proper shape to b
returned, and covers it with a mucu
fluid, provided by numerous little gland
in the honeycomb shells, and whic
renders the return through the gullet NOR
easy.
BY another slight convulsive effort {
the animal, the pellet is made to brea
through the floor of the canal, and is cal
ried to the base Of the guliet, where it
embraced by the spiral muscles of thg
tube, and returned to the mou tn or it ma
be more correctly said that the sam
edort which sends the prepared pell,
from the second stomach into the gullet, {
be re-chewed, forces a fresh portion froI
the paunch into the second stomach. Til
animal now ruminates at his leisure, az
the pellet having been perfectly broke
down by the grinding action of the teetl
, and softened by an additional secretio
from the glands of the mouth, is almost
semi-huid mass; and when it is agai
swallowed, it either has suficiel
? solidity to force itself through the floor
the canal, or the beast does not choo
1 that it shall, and it passes on, over the TO
. of the paunch and the honey comb, ar
I enters into the third stomach or man,
/ plies.-Americda Stock .lOslrndl