Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1884-06-27

Every child living in the country has
stood and watched this curious opera
tiofi, and wondered what the lump was
he saw come up In the cows throat,
and then 60 down after she had chewed
it for a certain length of time. And
perhaps he may have seen the anxiety
and turmoil produced on the farm by
tile report that some one Of the cows
had "lost her crd, !" and as the result of
this excitement he may have seen the
absurd attempt to make a new cud, In
the hope that the cow would by such
means be restored to good condition.
There is in the minds of a large pro-
portion OF the readers of the Scientific
American (which simply means the
community SO little correct understand
ing of the true nature of chewing the
cud, that a few words concerning 1t
may not be amiss.
A very large tribe of animals, of
which sheep and cows are only famil-
iar. examples, are called in works of
natural history Ruminitia Lecause they
allruminate, they chew the cud. They
do so because their peculiar organs OF
digestion require it; they can get their
nourishment in no other way. They
have, it is said in the books, four stom-
achs, but the statement is not strictly
correct, for the entire digestion is done
In single one, that which is called the
fourth, the other three being only pla-
ces for preparatory work. Their food
Is swallowed without being chewed;
the chewing is to come later. When
this unchewed food is swallowed 1t
passes directly into the first stomach,
to use the common term; but the drink
which the animal takes goes straight
past the entrance Of the first into the
second. These two serve only to soak
and soften the coarse food. When the
first has done what it can, the food
passes out of it into the second, and
then the cow or sheep is ready to chew
the cud.
The second stomach, while busily at
work in soaking the food, keeps it in
motion, and gradually rolls it up into
masses, so that in the small upper part
there is formed an oblong solid lump OF
the size that we recognize as the cud.
This the animal throws up into the
mouth, and chews with evidently az
much satisfaction as the same act OF
mastication gives US when we put the
most delicate morsels between oul
teeth. When 1t is sufficiently chewed
the mass is swallowed and its place ta-
ken by another, which has been rolled
up in the mean time.
But the cud thus masticated does moi
return to the second stomach from
which it had come. 1t passes smoothly
into the third, place for additional lu-
brication, and then into the fourth
where the true digestion begins and
ends.
This is, in brief, the whole story, and
we see how naturally the chewing
comes in; it is the same as in our own
case, only that it is at different stage
OF the foods progress. And we see al
so, what losing the cud really is. The
COW or sheep is suffering from indiges.
tiOn; the second stomach has failed to
roll up the little masses suitable fol
chewing, and there is nothing which
the poor beast can bring up. OF course
therefore, the one thing required is to
restore the tone and power of the
stomach; not to burden it with an arti
fetal cud, which would only increase
the difficulty, instead of relieving it,
Scientific American.