![]() ![]() Their swelled and cleft lip, their long neck, their prominent orbits, the weakness of their crupper, the disagreeable proportion of their legs and feet, make them in some degree deformed beings, but their extreme sobriety, and the faculty they have of passing many days without water, render them extremely useful. The great hoof, flattened on the internal side, which envelops the whole lower part of each toe, and determines the figure of the ordinary cleft-foot, they have but one small one, which adheres only to the last phalanx, and of a symmetrical form, like the hoofs of the pachydermata. These attributes, as well as having the scaphoïd and cuboïd of the tarsus separate, they alone of all the ruminants possess. The lower incisors six in number, and the cheek-teeth twenty or eighteen only. They have not only always canines in the two jaws, but moreover two pointed teeth implanted in the incisive bone. Many of them serve as beasts of burden, others are useful for their milk, their fat, their hides, their bones, and other productions.Īpproximate a little more than the others to the preceding order. He can eat all of them, and it is from them, in fact, that he derives almost wholly his animal food. The ruminants are of all animals those from which man has the greatest advantages. The fat of the ruminants hardens more in cooling than that of other quadrupeds, and becomes even brittle. Their cæcum is the same, long and smooth. The intestinal canal of the ruminants is very long, though but little swelled in the large intestines. The paunch does not develop itself, and takes its enormous size only by the reception of the food. So long as the ruminants live only on their mother's milk, this last is the largest of the stomachs. Tion, analogous to the simple stomach of common animals. The food, in this manner chewed a second time, descends directly into the third stomach ( omasum), named feuillet, because its sides have longitudinal laminæ like the leaves of a book, and from thence into the fourth ( abomassum), or caillette, the sides of which are in wrinkles, and this is the true organ of diges. The animal remains quiet during this operation, which continues until all the food swallowed before into the paunch has submitted to it. This stomach is very small and globular it seizes the food, imbibes and compresses it into little pellets, which afterwards remount successively to the mouth, to be again masticated. From this it goes into the second, called the honeycomb, or bonnet ( reticulum), the sides of which have laminæ similar to the honeycomb. The first and largest is called the paunch ( ventriculus) it receives in abundance the vegetable food, grossly pounded by the first mastication. This property results from the structure of their stomachs of these they always have four, the three first of which are so disposed that the food can enter indifferently into either of them, because the œsophagus abuts on the point of communication. The name Ruminantia indicates the singular property of these animals, of masticating their aliment a second time which they bring back into the mouth after a first deglutition. The two bands of the metacarpus and metatarsus are united nto one. The fore-feet are terminated by two toes, and by two hoofs, which face each other by a flat side, so that they have the appearance of a single hoof which had been cleft, whence these animals are said to be bifurcated.īehind the hoof there are sometimes two small spurs, the only vestiges of lateral toes. The cheekteeth, almost always six on each side in each jaw, have the coronals marked with two double crosses, of which the convexity is turned inward in the upper teeth, and outward in the lower. Between the incisors and the molars is a void space, in which only in a few genera are one or two canines. In the upper jaw, instead of teeth, there is a callous pad. The first of these characters is the absence of incisive teeth in the upper jaw in the lower there are almost always eight. Is perhaps the most natural and best determined of the class, for these animals have the appearance of being almost altogether constructed on the same model, and the camels alone present some small exceptions to the common character. Heads and Horns of Damalis Senegalensis, Dicranorerus, &c.Įxternal and internal Views of Horns of Catoplebas, &c. MAJOR CHARLES HAMILTON SMITH, F.R.S., L.S., &c. LONDON: Printed by WILLIAM CLOWES, Charing Cross. &c.ĪLL THE SPECIES HITHERTO NAMED, AND OF MANY NOT BEFORE NOTICED, ARRANGED IN CONFORMITY WITH ITS ORGANIZATION, ![]()
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