314 



THE ELEPHAIfT. 



[Part VIII. 



The appendage thus alhided to by Sk Everard 

 Home is the " grand cul-de-sac," noticed by the Aca- 

 demic des Sciences, and the " division particuhere," 

 ligiu^ed by Camper. It is of sufficient dimensions 

 to contain ten gallons of water, and by means of 

 the valve above alluded to it can be shut off from the 

 chamber devoted to the process of digestion. Professor 

 OwEX is probably the first who, not from an autopsy, 

 but from the mere inspection of the drawings of Camper 

 and Home, ventured to assert, in lectures hitherto un- 

 pubhshed, that the uses of this section of the elephant's 

 stomach may be analogous to those ascertained to belong 

 to a somewhat similar arrangement in the stomach of the 

 camel, one cavity of which is exclusively employed as a 

 reservou^ for water, and performs no function in the pre- 

 paration of food. ^ 



Whilst Professor Owex was advancing this conjectm^e, 

 another comparative anatomist, from the examination of 

 another portion of the structure of the elephant, was 

 led to a somewhat similar conclusion. Dr. Harrison 

 of Dubhn had, in 1847, an opportunity of dissecting 

 the body of an elephant which had suddenly died ; 

 and in the course of his examination of the thoracic 

 viscera, he observed that an unusually close connec- 

 tion existed between the trachea and oesophagus, 

 which he found to depend on a muscle unnoticed by 

 any previous anatomist, connecting the back of the 

 former with the forepart of the latter, along which the 

 fibres descend and can be distinctly traced to the cardiac 

 orifice of the stomach. Imperfectly acquainted with 

 the habits and functions of the elephant in a state of 



is iiiiiformly smooth ; that of the 

 pyloric is thicker and more vascidar." 

 — Lectures on Comparative Anatomy, 

 by Sir Eveeakd IIome, Bart. 4to. 

 Lond. vol. i. p. 155. The figm-e of 

 the elephant's stomach is given vol. ii. 

 pliite xviii. 



1 A similar arrangement, \\'ith 



some modifications, has more recently 

 been found in the lluma of the iVndes, 

 which, like the camel, is used as a 

 beast of burden in the Cordilleras of 

 Chili and Peru ; but both these and 

 the camel are ruminatits, whilst the 

 elephant belongs to the Pachyder- 

 mata. 



