of the Peruvian Lama. 495 



camel and lama can each refrain from drinking for so long a pe- 

 riod, depends altogether on the structure of the stomach ; yet it 

 is not improbable that it may in part be connected therewith. 

 Many travellers report that the lama never drinks ; and a fo- 

 reign writer (Father FEUILLE') is quoted, as describing the sto- 

 mach to be not only provided with a large reservoir for carrying 

 water, but that, like the stomach of the camel, it has the same 

 machinery for allowing the separation of solid from liquid ali- 

 ment. I have not been able to find a complete copy of FEU- 

 ILLE" s work, so that I cannot support what I have said by his 

 remarks ; but surely there can be no occasion for this, since the 

 actual structure I now describe at this moment lies before me. 



SECTION III. 



I HAVE hitherto, in conformity with the language used by 

 anatomists, spoken of single, double, triple, quadruple, and quin- 

 tuple stomachs, as if there were such in nature ; but I do not 

 believe so. The stomach of all animals is a single organ : it may 

 be divided into various compartments, as in the ruminants, the 

 camels, and in the cetacea, and these may have their specific 

 uses. One may be intended slightly to affect the alimentary 

 mass first received into it ; a second to alter it still further by 

 its juices ; a third may be intended merely to prolong its resi- 

 dence within the canal ; and a fourth finally to convert it into 

 that semifluid condition, into which it is presumed finally to be 

 changed, previous to its passage into the intestinal tube, but 

 still it is but one organ ; nor have I ever heard it affirmed by 

 any one, that the complex quadruple stomach did more than 

 the simple stomach, in affecting the material of our nourishment, 

 or bringing it nearer to perfection. I presume, therefore, that 

 the organ is single in every important sense of the word, and 



