490 Dr KNOX on the Structure of the Stomach 



joy, if there be the smallest truth in the law, that similar and 

 analogous parts must perform similar functions. 



The Camel. 



The discovery of the peculiar anatomy of the camel's sto- 

 mach is not a discovery of modern times. PERRAULT, in the 

 Memoirs of the French Academy, describes the stomach of the 

 camel with tolerable accuracy ; but it was reserved for DAUBEN- 

 TON to finish a monograph, which, for accuracy of detail and 

 shrewdness of observation, cannot be excelled. The facts disco- 

 vered by DAUBENTON were re-examined very lately by Sir E. 

 HOME, and found to be strictly accordant with nature. The 

 learned and modest assistant of BUFFON had absolutely omitted 

 nothing. M. CUVIER, indeed, has not deemed it necessary to 

 quote DAUBENTON'S description in his great work on Compara- 

 tive Anatomy, and has given us in its place the dissection of the 

 stomach of the foetus of a lama ; but this, I trust, in this country 

 at least, will not be deemed derogatory of DAUBENTON'S merit, 

 more particularly if it be shewn that his monograph on the sto- 

 mach of the camel is admirable. But, first, with regard to the 

 dissections of PERRAULT and of his colaborateurs, the Parisian 

 dissectors, as they are sometimes called. 



" The ventricle," say they, " which was very large, and di- 

 vided into parts (39), as in the other animals which ruminate, 

 had not that different structure which is observed in the sto- 

 machs of the strictly ruminants, or ox and sheep. They were 

 only distinguished by some straitenings, which made that the 

 first ventricle, if large and bent, produced another very small 

 one, which was followed with a third somewhat less than the 

 first, but much longer, and this was followed by a fourth like 

 to the second. 



" At the top of the second ventricle, there were several square 



