182 
FORM OF THE STOMACH. 
abdomen (fig. 108). The form of this stomach varies much, 
according to the nature of the aliment to be digested. Where 
the food is animal flesh, which is easily dissolved, the stomach 
is small, and appears like a mere enlargement of the alimentary 
tube; this is the case in the Cat tribe, for example. In Her¬ 
bivorous animals, on the contrary, the stomach is very large, 
the food being delayed there a long time on account of the 
difficulty with which it is digested; and the principal part of 
its cavity is not a simple enlargement of the alimentary tube, 
but a bag or sac that bulges out, as it were, on the left side of 
that canal. By the degree of this bulging, we can judge of 
the nature of the food on which the animal is destined to 
live. Thus in Man (fig. 108), the large end of the stomach, 
situated on the left side (the right side of the figure as we 
look at it), is moderately developed; showing, as we might 
expect from the form of his teeth, as well as from his natural 
tastes, that he is adapted for a diet in which animal and 
vegetable food are mixed. In the purely carnivorous tribes, 
this large end of the stomach is almost deficient; whilst in 
the herbivorous races, it is enormously developed, and some¬ 
times forms a distinct pouch. 
(Esophagus 
Cardia 
3d Stom. 
Intestine 
Pylorus 4th Stom. 2d Stom. 1st Stom. 
Fig. 109.— Stomachs of the Sheep. 
198. The most complex form of the stomach among Mam¬ 
mals, is that which we find in the animals that ruminate or 
chew the cud. It possesses, in fact, no less than four distinct 
cavities, through all of which the food has to pass during the 
