Stomachs Of Cows

In one class of herbivorous animáis there is a romarkablo vanation in the fornt of the passage to the stomach.. Thev have indeed usually been described as having four stoinachs, but this is not quita true, for they have properly but one, which does not differ very ïnuch in tbrm and structure trom that of any other animal- but thore are several . large eavities through which the lood lias to pass before it reaches this. The ftrst of these is very large, the animal collects a quantity of grasa and hay sufficient to fill this, and then lies dowu to enjoy it at its leisure. He just causes it to pass little by Httle into another cavity which is on the other side, and somewhat smaller. Tho interior of this cavity or sac is divided into a number of six-sided cells - of which the arrangement is exceedingly regular and beautiful, resenibling those of a honeycomb. After the food has remaiued in this a short time, the animal begins to take up a portion of it into his inouth, and chew it over ; when he has done this a while he swallows the morsel as before, but instead of turning to the right or left as before, it passes on to a third cavity, whioh is divided by longitudinal partitions into numerous chambers. Here it remains a while, undergoing operations with which we are unacquainted, and then passes on to the fourth cavity, or true stomach. This process is called ruminating - and the animal while thus employed nppears to be aniusing, or meditating. The final cause or purpose of such a complicated proce6S is not very well ascertained. It is evident that the digestión is thus more complete - but this would not appear to be absolutely necessary, because the horse and other animáis that.live upon grass do not have this. It is truo that the horse has the upper fore teeth which the ruminating animáis do not, but this difference seems hardly sufticient to require auch an important ehange. The ancionts had an old notion on this subject. They imagined that by this oneration the animal was enabled to do without these teeth, and that the materials which should have furnished those w(re used for horses, which belong to ruminating animáis in general. Others have supposed, that as the animáis were generalij' a pacific and timid race, this contrivance enabled them to coilect their f'ood in less tiuie, and then to retire to soiiio shelter to finish tho process. But they are not all timid- the buffalo of India attacks and soinetiraes vauquishes the lion - and the wild goat, though timid, usually feeds on herghts which are inaccessible to beasts of prey. On the whole, therefore, we may conclude that we have yet to learn the principal reason of this arrangement. - jfauaekuttttê Phvyhman. íírprjlipnrgitó