496 DR KNOX on the Structure of the Stomach 



that the phraseology of two, three, or four stomachs is altogether 

 incorrect. We have seen that no anatomist of ancient or mo- 

 dern times could ever predict what kind of stomach would ne- 

 cessarily be found in any animal previous to its having actually 

 been examined. The stomach of the elephant presents one 

 large cavity ; the elephant has no cutting incisor teeth in either 

 jaw. The stomach of the horse is single, as the phrase goes, if 

 we require that a stomach to be considered double must be di- 

 vided by a permanent contracted interval into two cavities, com- 

 municating with each other by an aperture smaller in diameter 

 than either ; but if to constitute a double stomach, it be merely 

 necessary that its interior should present differently organized 

 surfaces, then the stomach of the horse is double. The hippo- 

 potamus has, if I remember right, a kind of three cavities or 

 stomachs, as they are called, judging by the number of culs de 

 sac or compartments ; for I could not observe, in the interior of 

 these cavities, any great difference as to structure ; but it seems 

 to me impossible to say how many stomachs the seal or pig may 

 be considered as entitled to ; externally, indeed, they seem to 

 have but one ; internally they present valvular projections and a 

 diversified structure, setting at defiance all the usual anatomi- 

 cal nomenclature as to this organ. 



Man is considered as having a single stomach, but this is not 

 unfrequently found contracted about the middle, so as to divide 

 the cavity, as it were, into two, by means of a narrow contracted 

 portion. If this be constant during the digestion of the food, 

 as some have supposed, we might almost venture to call the hu- 

 man stomach double ; but in truth it is not so, and is a pheno- 

 menon which takes place only occasionally and in certain indivi- 

 duals ; it is a deviation from the ordinary human structure, but 

 of the simplest kind, an irregularity in man, a regular struc- 

 ture in certain of the lower animals, that structure being, as it is 

 so often, persistent in them, which in him is only fugacious. 



