480 DR KNOX on the Structure of the Stomach 



The facility with which an error in observation may be pro- 

 pagated is very great, in consequence of there being so few who 

 make any effort to observe for themselves. A doubt is expressed 

 by a person having some little acquaintance with the matter dis- 

 cussed ; and this doubt, as it extends, is changed to " a probabi- 

 lity," from which the step to " a certainty" is easy, especially if 

 this third person be altogether ignorant of the nature of the in- 

 quiries *. An obscure hint is first thrown out by a distinguished 

 anatomist ; a bolder and much more decided statement is made 

 by another ; a popular writer and naturalist, of whom it would 

 be unreasonable to expect anatomical knowledge, considers 

 the matter as decided, and the stomach of the lama is declared 

 to be " unlike that of the camel," being unprovided with the 

 peculiar apparatus by which it is enabled to dispense with the 

 necessity of a daily supply of water, even in countries where such 

 supply, from the heat of the climate, may be supposed essential- 

 ly requisite. 



The object of the present memoir is to shew, that the state- 

 ments denying to the lama a compensating and peculiar structure 

 as regards the stomach, are without foundation in truth ; and 

 that errors, for such they assuredly are, have originated in an 

 unwary application of a principle, which I had thought all ex- 

 perienced anatomists employed with great caution, viz. the as- 

 suming the structure of the young or fretal state to be analo- 

 gous or identical with that of the adult f . 



Whoever looks into the structure of an animal, is naturally 



* GRIFFITH'S Animal Kingdom. 



\ Sir E. HOME has inferred, from the examination of the structure of the sto- 

 mach of the young lama, that " the stomach has a portion of it, as it were, intended 

 to resemble the reservoirs for water in the camel ; but these have no depth, are only 

 superficial cells, and have no muscular apparatus to close their mouths and allow the 

 solid food to pass into the fourth cavity, or truly digesting stomach, without going 

 into these cells." Comp. AnaL vol. v. p. 249. 



