3b0 , STOMACH OF THE WHALE. 



effected, being slower than that, which separates the flesh, 

 i9 the reason of their being found in such quantity in the 

 cavity, the means by which it is performed are probably 

 the same. 

 Mr. Hunter's The second cavity was supposed by Mr. Hunter to be 

 wconTcavity! tiie true WfiHfeg stomach, in which the food becomes 

 chyle, and the use of the third and fourth he looked upon 

 as iiot exactly ascertained*. 

 Erroneous. Upon what ground Mr. Hunter was led to draw this con- 



tusion cannot now be ascertained ; and, such is my respect 

 for his opinion, that nothing but the following observa- 

 tions, supported by facts, could lead me to form a different 

 one. In considering this subject, it struck me that the 

 second stomach could not be that, in which chyle is form- 

 ed, since that process having been completed, any other 

 The chyle al- cavities would be superfluous. The last cavity in all 

 theT f ° rmec j in stomachs is that, in which the process must be brought to 

 perfection : and therefore the most essential change, which 

 the food undergoes, or that by which it is formed into 

 chyle, should be performed in that cavity. Surveying the 

 different cavities in the whale's and ruminating stomachs 

 with this impression on my mind, and comparing them with 

 the single stomachs of carnivorous animals, it appeared 

 that the first point, which required to be ascertained, was, 

 which of the cavities in these more complex stomachs bears 

 the greatest resemblance to the simple one. 'The fourth of 

 the whale is certainly more like the human stomach than 

 the second or third. I therefore concluded, that the fourth, 

 both from analogy and situation, is the stomach in which 

 the process is completed : and that in this animal, from the 

 peculiarities of its ceconomy, and the nature of the food, 

 not only a cuticular stomach is necessary, but also two 

 glandular ones, in which it undergoes changes preparatory 

 to its being converted into chyle. 

 Compart -with Having satisfied myself upon this subject, and having 

 the stomach ef^ ired the sfomac }, s f t h e whale with the fourth of 

 the camel j 



the camel, the contraction or partial division of the camel's 



made it apparent, that the lower portion only of that ca- 



* Fide Observations on the Structure and (Economy of Whale?. 

 By John Hunter. Philos. Trans. Vol. LXXVII, p, 411. 



4 Thy, 



