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AEISTOTLE S ANHOMCEOMEBIA 



a stomach which is quite different from that of others, such 

 as, for example, the parrot-wrasse, which is the only fish 

 that seems to ruminate.* 



In fishes, the stomach and intestines, especially the 

 stomach, are usually more complicated in form than those 

 in snakes. Some fishes, like the sharks, have capacious 

 stomachs shaped like a bent tube or siphon, and many, e.g., 

 the eel and bass, have stomachs with a large caecum. 

 There are other forms, but these are the chief types. The 

 stomach of the parrot-wrasse (Skaros) is without a caecum, 

 and appears to be of simpler form than that of most fishes, 

 but I have been unable to obtain a specimen for dissection 

 of the stomach or to find a full description of its general 

 structure. The so-called ruminating habits of Aristotle s 

 Skaros will be dealt with in Chapter xvii. 



The grey mullet has a muscular stomach which serves 

 as a powerful grinding organ, like a bird s gizzard, and 

 Aristotle, who calls this fish Kestreus, was aware of this 

 peculiarity.! 



The pyloric caeca of fishes were well known to Aristotle, 

 who says that they are situated near the stomach and may 

 be few or many, or, in some fishes, absent.! The most 

 important part of his account of the numbers of caeca in 

 different fishes is given below. 



According to Aristotle, the Malakia or cephalopods have 

 a long and narrow oesophagus passing into a large crop, like 

 that of a bird, and close to this crop is the stomach, shaped 

 like the whorl of a whelk ; from this an intestine, small 



* H. A. ii. c. 12, s. 13. f P. A. iii. c. 14, G75a. 



I H. A. ii. c. 12, s. 13. 



