ANATOMY OF THE STOMACH. 63 



of the Prophet's expedition to Tabuc against 

 the Greeks, relates, among other distresses of the 

 army, that they were reduced to the necessity of 

 killing their camels for the sake of the water 

 contained in their stomachs." Daubenton found 

 in the stomach of a camel which had been dead 

 ten days, about three pints of clear water, almost 

 tasteless and still drinkable. Carbuccia states, 

 § 16, that the stomach of a dead camel opened in 

 Algeria, in the presence of several officers, was 

 found to contain more than fifteen litras of a 

 greenish fluid, of a not unpleasant taste. The 

 Arabs who were present said that after standing 

 three days the water would become clear and 

 drinkable, and the experiment was tried with 

 success. Capt. Lyon asserts that water is taken 

 from the stomach of the camel, strained and 

 drunk. Although, therefore, Burckhardt^ de- 

 clares that he never heard of killing the camel 

 for the water in the reservoir, and doubts whether 

 that fluid would be found in it, the fact that un- 

 der some circumstances water in considerable 

 quantities is found in the stomach, must be re- 

 garded as established. But a case would not be 

 likely to occur where the supply would not hold 

 out as long in the water-skins of the traveller as 

 in the stomach of the camel, and therefore the 

 necessity of a resort to this source must be ex- 

 tremely rare. 



' Bedouins, 260. 



