from their 

 bones 



S5g STOMACH OF THE WHALE. 



fish, should hare a more complex stomach, it is not easy 

 to explain : since fish are very readily converted into chyle, 

 in the stomachs of animals of their own class, as well as in 

 the human stomach, and there is therefore reason to be- 

 lieve, that they require as little preparation for that process, 

 if not less than animal substances. 

 Ruminating The fish bones swallowed by the whale tribe being rc- 



tf lirineorffisrf i^ nc ^ in tne cuticular bag, till they are reduced to jelly, 

 ithout injury explains the circumstance of cows, and other ruminating 

 animals being able occasionally to live on fish, (a fact, of 

 which there is no doubt, both in the Orkneys and in Ice- 

 land ;) since, if the bones are dissolved in the paunch, the 

 other stomachs are in no danger of being injured from the 

 animal living on this kind of food. I 



Whether these cavities, which I have called preparatory 

 stomachs, are solely for purposes connected with digestion, 

 or are also in any way connected with the formation of 

 secretions peculiar to those animals, cannot be ascertained 

 in the present state of our knowledge of digestion. 

 Anomaly of The oil of the physeter, which crystallizes into sperma- 



wnale. ermaC ' cc ^t shows some affinity in this respect to the secretion of 

 fat, that becomes suet, which is only met with in rumi- 

 nating animals : but on the other hand, the oil of the rest 

 of the whale tribe does not form this substance, more than 

 the fat of the horse produces tallow. These facts may be 

 hereafter explained by an examination of the digestive 

 organs of the physeter, when an anatomist shall have an 

 opportunity of examining them. 



VI. On 



