History of All Cloven-Hoofed Quadrupeds

Ruminus Jupiter.

...because he nourished animals with the teat (ruma) or the rumex. But we also have irrumare for "to suckle" among the ancients, as if to insert the teat into the mouth; a word which was later transferred to the significance of a foul lust.

Rumis, Book 2.

This same part is called the rumis: Varro is the witness in On the Latin Language. “By an ancient word,” he says, “the breast was called rumis, whence suckling lambs are called subrumi:” as well as the frumen, as Servius noted in these

Frumen.

words: “Frumen is the protruding part of the throat under the chin: the Greeks call it the larynx; the Latins and Celsus call it the fauces.”

Book 5, Var. lect. ch. 13.

Girolamo Mercuriali thinks that the word for ruminating could have flowed from aerumnae [hardships/toils], since

Book 7, Against the Pagans.

Arnobius writes that erumnae are the first heads in the gullets: I, however, would derive it rather from the rumen, or from ruma, that is, the teat: for when quadrupeds ruminate, they seem in a certain way to suckle.

The necessity of rumination.

Now, rumination is exceedingly useful and necessary for animals of this kind, for the reason that since they feed on harder fodder, they are unable to grind and smooth it at first in the manner of others, on account of the lack of teeth in the upper jaw; and because they have the lower ones very little iron-clad: for which reason they first greedily swallow it broken and crushed by a certain rough and slight cutting; these, having been soaked in a certain warm moisture in the first cavity of the belly, are made softer, and soon, being pushed back to the throat when more tender, they are better thinned out (just as is accustomed to happen to old men, who, since they themselves also suffer from a lack of teeth, sprinkle bread with wine or some other liquid before they bring it to the mouth, and once it is softened in that way, they then grind it with their callous gums with almost no trouble, whence it is said that old men “ruminate”).

Several stomachs in place of teeth.

For most-wise Nature has compensated for the lack of teeth with a multitude of stomachs, as

Book 6, ch. 3.

Galen advised us in his work On Anatomical Procedures, where he says: An animal that does not have upper teeth must necessarily have several stomachs, so that it may immediately cast the fodder into the first, soon finish it in the mouth by ruminating from this one, then swallow it again into another stomach, and from this one transfer it again into another.

Book 3, On the Parts, ch. 14.

Aristotle also taught this, where he treats expressly of the differences of the stomach and of the parts pertaining to the same.

The teeth and stomachs of the camel.

“The stomachs,” he says, “are neither similar to each other in size nor in appearance: but those in the class of blooded animals which are toothed on both sides and viviparous have a simple stomach, like man, the dog, the lion, and the rest whose feet are split into many toes, and those which are either solid-hoofed, like the horse, mule, and ass, or indeed cloven-hoofed but toothed on both sides, like the pig—unless some, on account of the size of their body or the difficulty of food not suitable for digestion but thorny and woody, have a multiple stomach, like the camel; just as the horned animals do; since they are not toothed on both sides. And the camel indeed (although it lacks horns) is for this reason not toothed above, because it is more necessary for it to have such a stomach than front teeth. Since, therefore, it has a stomach similar to those not toothed on both sides, it also receives teeth in a similar manner, as being little necessary. Moreover, since the food is hard and thorny, nature has used the earthy portion of the teeth for the callousness and hardness of the palate. Each of these has several stomachs, such as the sheep, goat, stag, and similar animals, so that since the office of the mouth is not sufficiently employed in grinding food on account of the lack of teeth, the function of the stomachs may fulfill it, while one receives food from the other—namely, the first receives it unprocessed, the second somewhat processed, the third more fully, the fourth very fully processed. Thus it happens that this genus of animals has several receptacles for food, to which these names have been given, or may be given: koilia, kekryphalos, echinos, enystron; that is, the stomach, the spider-web or reticulum, the omasum, and the abomasum.”

Names and description of the stomachs. Book 2, Hist. last.

The same philosopher described these same stomachs thus: Viviparous, horned quadrupeds, toothed in one jaw, have four such cavities, which are also said to ruminate: for the gullet, beginning from the mouth, extends downward to the lungs and the transverse septum; from here it attaches itself to the larger stomach, which is rough and divided on its interior part, and near the junction of the gullet it has a cavity joined to it, which from its appearance they call the reticulum. For it is like the stomach on the outside, [but] inside like the interwoven hairnets of women, and much larger in size than the stomach. The omasum follows this, rough on the inner part, latticed, and encrusted, of the same size as the reticulum. Another stomach, the abomasum, is joined to it, larger in size than the omasum, more oblong in shape, formed with many lattices and crusts inside, large and smooth; the intestine follows soon after. It is certain that all horned animals toothed in one jaw have their stomachs in this manner.

The use and quality of the stomachs.

All these things are from him. Therefore, the first stomach surpasses the rest in size and capacity, so that ruminants might be able to swallow a greater quantity of fodder and reserve it as if stored in a pantry, and soon chew it again or ruminate by regurgitating it with greater leisure. The fourth is oblong like an intestine, while the others exist gathered together and more rounded; moreover, it swells in the middle.

Why the stomachs are circular.

Now, Nature made all the previous ones circular, because that kind of shape is the most capacious of all. For they had to receive a very great deal of fodder. The first and second cavities of the fodder are adjacent to the end of the esophagus: the former so that it might receive food roughly chewed, the latter so that it might receive it chewed again, lest a mixing and confusion of the thinned fodder and the rough fodder occur. In the first cavity of the belly, the food is still seen to be rough, even with stalks and barely torn twigs. In the second cavity, the food is more fully processed, and even more refined in the third, so that at last in the final one the digestion is completed: where, indeed, it turns into chyle or a milky cream. Likewise, the inner lining of them all is hard, yet the hardest of all is that of the first stomach, which receives scaly and rough nourishment.