DESCRIPTION OF PLATES.
Plate I. Position of the first stomach (rumen or paunch) on the left side. The area inclosed by heavy dotted lines represents the rumen; the elongated, shaded organ is the spleen resting upon it. The skin and muscles have been removed from the ribs to show the position of the lungs and their relation to the paunch.
Plate II. Stomach of ruminants.
Fig. 1. Stomach of a full-grown sheep, 1/5 natural size (after Thanhoffer, from R. Meade Smith's Physiology of Domestic Animals): a, rumen, or first stomach; b, reticulum, or second stomach; c, omasum, or third stomach; d, abomasum, or fourth stomach; e, esophagus, or gullet, opening into the first and second stomachs; f, opening of fourth stomach into small intestine; g, opening of second stomach into third; h, opening of third stomach into fourth.
The lines indicate the course of the food in the stomachs. The incompletely masticated food passes down the esophagus, or gullet, into the first and second stomachs, in which a churning motion is kept up, carrying the food from side to side and from stomach to stomach. From the first stomach regurgitation takes place; that is, the food is returned through the gullet to the mouth to be more thoroughly chewed, and this constitutes what is known as "chewing the cud." From the second stomach the food passes into the third, and from the third into the fourth, or true, stomach, and from there into the intestines.
Fig. 2. Stomach of ox (after Colin, from R. Meade Smith's Physiology of Domestic Animals): a, rumen; b, reticulum; c, omasum; d, abomasum; e, esophagus; f, opening of fourth stomach into small intestine.
Fürstenberg calculated that in an ox of 1,400 pounds weight the capacity of the stomach is as follows:
| Per cent. | |
|---|---|
| Rumen, 149.25 quarts, liquid measure | 62.4 |
| Reticulum, 23.77 quarts | 10.0 |
| Omasum, 36.98 quarts | 15.0 |
| Abomasum, 29.05 quarts | 12.6 |
According to Colon—
| Quarts. | |
|---|---|
| The capacity of a beef's stomach is | 266.81 |
| Small intestine | 69.74 |
| Cecum | 9.51 |
| Colon and rectum | 25.58 |
Plate III. Instruments used in treating diseases of digestive organs.
Fig. 1. Clinical thermometer, 4/5 natural size. This is used to determine the temperature of the animal body. The thermometer is passed into the rectum after having been moistened with a little saliva from the mouth, or after having had a little oil or lard rubbed upon it to facilitate its passage. There it is allowed to remain two or three minutes, then withdrawn, and the temperature read as in any ordinary thermometer. The clinical thermometer is made self-registering; that is, the mercury in the stem remains at the height to which it was forced by the heat of the body until it is shaken back into the bulb by taking hold of the upper portion of the instrument and giving it a short, sharp swing. The normal temperature of cattle varies from 100° to 103° F. In young animals it is somewhat higher than in old. The thermometer is a very useful instrument and frequently is the means by which disease is detected before the appearance of any external sign.