The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1884-07-16
CHEWING THE CUD.

8 Scientific american; Every child
in thescountry has stood and watch
a ed this curious operation, and
, wondered what the lump was which
! he saw come up in the. cows throat
and then go down again after she
: had chewed it for a certain length
oftime. And perhaps he may,bave
seen the anxiety and turmoil pro-
duced on "a farmer by, the report
that some one, of the COWS had, 'slost
her cud," and as the result of this
excitemect he may have seen the,
absurd attempt tolT make new cud,p
in hope that the cow would by such
means be restored to good condition.
There is the minds of a large pOr-
| tion Of the readers of the Scientific
American (Which simply means the
community so little correct under
derstanding Of the true nature of
chewing the cud, ;" thatafew words
concerning it may not be amiss.
A very large tribe of animals, of
which sheep and cows are only ia
milliar examples, are called in works
of natural history Ruminantia be-
cause they all runinate, they chew
the cud, they do not because their
organs Of digestion require it; they
can get their nourishment in no
other way. They have, it is said in
the books, four stomachs, but the
statement is not strictly correct, for
the entire digestion is done in a
single one, that which is called the
fourth, the other three being only
places for preparatory work. Their
food is swallowed without being
chewed; the chewing is to come later.
When this chewed food is swallow
ed it passes directly into the first
stomach, to use the common term;
but the drinking 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. w hen 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
1T work in soaking the food, keeps
it in melton, and gradually rolls it
up into masses, so that in the small
upper part there is formed on OBJ
long solid Jumps of the size that we
recognize as the "cud" This the
animal throws up into the mouth,
and chews with evidently as much
satisfaction as the same act of masti~
cation gives us when we put the
most delicate morsels between our
teeth. When it is sufficiently chew
ed tie mass is swallowed, and its
place taken by another, which had
been rolled up in the meantime.
But the "cud' thus masticated
does notreturn to thesecond stomach,
from which it had come. 1t passes
smoothly into the third, place for
additional lubrication, and then into
4 fourth where the true digestion
begins and ends.
This is, in brief, the whole story,
and we see how naturally the chew~
Ag comes IN; it is the same as in
our own case, only that it is at a
stage of the foods progress.
And we see also what closing the
,ud" really is. The COW or sheepis
Iuffering from indigestion the
second stomach has failed to roll
I'D the littlemasses suitable for chew
ng, and there is nothing which the
,oor beast can bring up. Ofeourse,
herefore, the one thing required is
0 restore the tone and power of the
tomach; not to burden it with an
cud," which would only
Increase the difficulty, instead of res
ieving it. ,.....a.,.as ,s,-oa,a
The p ikes Peak Railroad, which
) to be in operation next year, ,sWill