58 The Wild Elephant. 



A writer in the Quarterly Review for December 1S50, 

 says that " Camper and other comparative anatomists 

 have shown that the left, or cardiac end of the stomach 

 in the elephant is adapted, by several wide folds of lining 

 membrane, to serve as a receiver for water ; " but this is 

 scarcely correct, for although Camper has accurately 

 figured the external form of the stomach, he disposes 

 of the question of the interior functions with the simple 

 remark that its folds " semblent en faire une espece de 

 division particuliere." ^ In like manner Sir Everard 

 Home, in his Lectures on Comparative Anato/iiy, has 

 not only carefully described the form of the elephant's 

 stomach, and furnished a drawing of it even more 

 accurate than Camper; but he has equally failed to 

 assign any purpose for so strange a formation ; con- 

 tenting himself Avith observing that the structure is a 

 peculiarity, and that one of the remarkable folds nearest 

 the orifice of the diaphragm appears to act as a valve, so 

 that the portion beyond may be considered as an append- 

 age similar to that of the hog and Xh.e peccaiy.^ 



sac qui se terminoit en une pointe com- (Camper, Dcscriptionaiiatoiitiqite dun 



poseede tuniquesbeaucoupplusepaisses Eldphaiit male, p. 37, tabl. ix.) 



que celles du reste de Tcstomac : il y ° "The elephant has another pecu- 



avoit au fond du grand cul-de-sac liarity in the internal structure of the 



plusieurs feuillets epais d'une ligne, stomach. It is longer and narrower 



larges d'un pouce et demi, et disposes than that of most animals. The cuti- 



irregulierement ; le reste des parois inte- cular membrane of the oesophagus ter- 



rieures etoit perce de plusieurs petits minates at the orifice of the stomach, 



trous et par de plus grands qui corres- At the cardiac end, which is very 



pondoicnt a des grains glanduleu.x." narrow and pointed at the extremity, 



(BuFFON, Hist. Nat. vol. xi. p. 109.) the lining is thick and glandular, and is 



' " L'extremite voisine du cardiaque thrown into transverse folds, of which 



se termine par une poche tres-conside- five are broad and nine narrow. That 



rableetdoubleeaTinterieuredequatorze nearest the orifice of the oesophagus is 



valvules orbiculaires qui semblent en the broadest, and appears to act occa- 



faire une espece de division particuliere." sionally as a valve, so that the part 



