164 on animal nutrition. Oct. ^, 



the pangolin could derive no sustenance from the mi- 

 neral substances found in its stomach, if a single par- 

 ticle of grain fhould ie discovered there. 



Setting aside therefore this concefsion of our au- 

 thor as unnecefsary, we proceed. ;,*' But if", says he, 

 " like other animals with muscular and cartilaginous 

 stomachs, this singular quadruped consumes grain, it 

 must be surprising that no vestige of such food was 

 found present in the whole alimentary canal ; nor can 

 it be inferred from the structure of the stomach, that 

 this animal lives on ants or on insects." 



He observes farther, from the report of experiments 

 by signior Brugnatelli of Pavia, on the authori- 

 ty of Mr Crell, "that some birds have so great a 

 difsolvent power in the gastric juice, as to difsolve in 

 their stomachs flints, rock, chrystal, calcareous stones, 

 and fhells : and nothing, we {hould think, that is so- 

 luble in the stomach of animals, may not be thence 

 absorbed into the circulating system ; and nothing 

 can be so absorbed without affecting the whole con- 

 stitution." But if nature prompts certain animals to 

 seek with eagernc-fs, and to swallow with avidity, 

 certain mineral substances, as other creatures fliow 

 2, natural fondnefs for animal or vegetable substan- 

 ces, from which we conclude they derive their nou- 

 tifhment, is it not equally natural to suppose that 

 the first set of anim'als equally derive nutriment 

 froTi the substances nature prompts them to choose, 

 as the last ? 



He farther observes, that, though Spallanzani 

 found by experiment, when he attempted to feed-fowls 

 entirely upon stones, that they died ; yet it can by 



