Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/487

 RUMIANTZEFF RUMINANTIA 467 established in October, 1816. The results of his investigations were published in pamphlets and essays, in French, English, or German. A complete edition of his writings has been pub- lished in 4 vols., with his life by the Rev. G. E. Ellis (Philadelphia, 1871). See also his life by Prof. Renwick, in Sparks's " American Biography," 2d series, vol. v. Il'miAYTZEFF, or Romantzoff, Petr, count, a Russian general, born in St. Petersburg in 1725, died in Mohilev in December, 1796. Du- ring the seven years' war he cooperated with Soltikoff in defeating Frederick the Great at Kunersdorf (1759), and captured the for- tress of Colberg (1761). In 1770 he became commander-in-chief against the Turks, and de- feated in two battles much superior forces on the Pruth and the Kagul, which gave to Rus- sia the whole left bank of the Danube. In 1774 he compelled the Turks to conclude a peace at Kutchuk-Kainarji ; and after being made field marshal, he was presented with a large domain. In 1787, on the renewal of the war with Turkey, he and Potemkin were placed in command ; but Rumiantzeff declined serv- ing with Potemkin and retired. KHIIXAXTIA (Lat. ruminare, to chew the cud), a group of ungulate even-toed mammals, characterized by the absence of incisors in the upper jaw in almost all cases, their place being supplied by a callous pad ; six lower incisors ; canines inconstant ; molars usually six on each side in each jaw, with flattened crowns and irregularly crescentic folds of enamel ; stomach compound, with three or four cavities, in con- nection with the act of rumination ; caacum large ; placenta generally cotyledonous ; and feet ungulate and bisulcate. This group is equivalent to the pecora of Linnrcus, and in- cludes such animals as the camel, deer, giraffe, antelope, gnu, goat, sheep, and ox. Almost all the genera are provided with horns, solid and deciduous as in the deer, or hollow and permanent as in the ox and sheep. They are large or moderate in size, and generally rapid runners; they feed in herds, headed by an old male, and are exclusively herbiv- orous ; the shape in most is light and ele- gant, and the limbs long and slender; the skin is covered with hair or wool ; the eyes are large, full, and often very beautiful ; the ears long, erect, very movable, and more or less pointed ; the tail varies much in length and covering. They inhabit vast plains, the forests of the north, and the dry deserts of the tropics, their speed taking them in a few hours from an exhausted to a rich feeding ground, and from a sandy waste to a well watered region. They wage no war on each other or on other animals, except during the pairing season ; taking to flight at slight causes of alarm, when brought to bay they fight bold- ly with their horns and antlers, and strike powerful blows with their sharp front hoofs. The deciduous horns of the ruminants may be rounded as in the stag, roebuck, and Vir- ginia deer, or palmated as in the moose, rein- deer, and fallow deer ; they are usually sym- metrical as to position and size, but not as to arrangement of the divisions ; there is an in- timate connection between the horns and the generative system, as their development may be arrested and their periodical shedding pre- vented by castration. There are seldom more than two ; but in the fossil sivatJierium of the tertiary of the Sivalik hills there are four, also in the four-horned sheep, goats, and ante- lopes; sometimes there are even five in the domesticated sheep. The solid horns have been described under BUCK, and DEER; these antlers fall by a process having a close resem- blance to that by which in necrosis the dead is separated from the living bone; after the pairing season has passed the circulation stops in the horns, and they become dry and dead, and separate from the frontal bone by absorp- tion carried on by the Haversian canals ; these, acting on one plane through the whole thick- ness of the bone just below the burr, remove the solid materials around them, so that each canal finally unites its cavity with that of an adjoining one ; when this has extended entire- ly across the base the antler falls. Prof. J. Wyman ("Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History," vol. vii., p. 168, 1859) re- gards the antlers as dermal bones rather than parts of the internal skeleton, because they are developed in the integuments by a special centre of ossification, and become attached to the frontal only after ossification has some- what advanced. In the hollow horns of the ox, sheep, and antelopes, the frontal bony cores are cylindrical shafts, more or less solid, pro- tected by periosteum and an extension of the true skin, of which the epidermic portion is de- veloped into a dense horny sheath ; in most the frontal sinuses extend into the cores. The tongue generally performs the office of prehen- sion as well as deglutition; the anterior part collects and judges by the touch of the nature of the food, the next portion prepares the mor- sel and thrusts it backward toward the oesoph- agus, and the basal part regulates the move- ments of the whole organ from its insertion in the hyoid bone ; the papilla?, fungiform and filiform in front, conical and circumvallate behind, are largely developed. The saliva- ry glands are large, with long ducts; tonsils bulky, and oesophagus thick and muscular. The stomach is fourfold, the first three cavities (paunch or rumen, honeycomb bag or reticu- lum, and manyplies or psalteriuni) being essen- tially dilatations of the oesophagus for the pur- pose of rumination, and leading to the fourth or true digestive cavity ; in the fourth or abo- masum, the only one developed in the newly born animal, there is in the calf an organic acid secreted, possessing the power of convert- ing the albumen of milk into curd or whey, in the prepared condition called rennet. Concre- tions of balls of hair, the result of hairs swal- lowed when licking their own or others' hides,