OF THE NUBIAN GIRAFFE. 221 
similar to those which are distributed over the interior of the gullet in the Turtles (Che- 
lonia). Other Ruminants have this structure’, but less strongly developed than in the 
Giraffe. On the palate there are about sixteen irregular transverse ridges, some slightly 
incurved, others tending to the chevron form, but all presenting a free denticulated edge 
turned backwards; these are traversed by a median groove, and gradually subside 
posteriorly. At the anterior part of the palate there are transverse rows of large obtuse 
papille in the interspaces of the ridges. This mechanical apparatus for detaining the 
food in the mouth and ensuring its deglutition, is required in the Giraffe more particu- 
larly on account of the small size of its head and jaws as compared with the body. 
The bolus which is regurgitated in rumination is generally so large as considerably to 
distend the cheek externally to the grinders ; and all the callous processes which beset 
the interior of the mouth tend to direct the nutritive matter to the space between the 
grinding teeth. 
It is in relation to the lengthened mastication which the alimentary substances un- 
dergo in the mouth of the Ruminants, that these peculiarities of the lips and palate exist. 
They have not escaped the notice of Cuvier ; but their presence by that great anato- 
mist is only connected with the corresponding existence of papillary productions from 
the lining membrane of the paunch ; and he states it to be difficult to trace a final con- 
nexion between their development and the kind of food on which the animal lives. 
But in reasoning on this structure, I think we may legitimately ascend beyond the 
simple relation of coexistence to which Cuvier alludes. In the act of rumination the 
bolus is driven into the mouth with great force ; and the use of these papille as mecha- 
nical obstacles to its escape, and their tendency to confine the soft slimy comminuted 
vegetable substances to the molar region during the second mastication, appear to be 
offices of sufficient importance to found upon their presence an argument of special 
adaptation or design. Cuvier, in illustrating his opinion, cites the Horse as having no 
buccal papille, and as having, in like manner, no papille in the interior of the stomach ; 
but the front part of the mouth ofthis Herbivorous animal is closed by teeth both above 
and below, and its food is never regurgitated for the purpose of undergoing a lengthened 
remastication. That they have no necessary relation of coexistence with pupille in the 
stomach or any other parts of the alimentary canal is obvious from the simple struc- 
ture of the lining membrane of the stomach in the Turtle, in which the esophagus is 
remarkable for the numerous, callous, pointed papille, designed to facilitate and ensure 
the passage to the stomach of the slippery sea-weed and other substances which con- 
stitute its food. 
Having frequently witnessed the great extensibility, flexibility, and extraordinary 
command and power which the Giraffe possesses over the movements of its tongue, and 
knowing the important share which this organ plays in the prehension of food in the 
' See Bojanus, Nova Acta Acad. Nat. Ces. Cur. Bonn. t. xii. pl. xxiii. fig. 7. 
VOL. I1.— PART III. 2G 
