672 



CAMEL. 



animals and thus obtain a supply. It is somewhat 

 singular that this opinion should have been held, or 

 at least received by simple transmission from one to 

 another, by even those whom we must suppose to have 

 been acquainted with the structure and economy of 

 the animals, at least so far as to be able to ascertain 

 whether so curious a fact a fact so perfectly ano- 

 malous was or was not possible. Now, it would not 

 be very easy to see how water could by possibility 

 be kept cold, in any part of the body of a warm- 

 blooded animal, even in Lapland, and much less in 

 those burning deserts in which camels are used as 

 beasts of burden. Farther, if even this impossibility 

 were got over, or if it were admitted that the water 

 were of the same temperature as the body of the 

 animal in which it was contained, it is not easily 

 seen either how it could get there, or of what possi- 

 ble use it could be to the animal ; for though Buffon 

 and other describers of that class, have said that the 

 hump or humps on the backs of camels are badges 

 of their enslavement in a domestic state, and do not 

 belong to them in free nature, yet, not even they 

 have gone the length of saying that camels have, in 

 consequence of their enslavement, been taught to 

 carry this supply of water for their masters. 



In the first place, the supply of water was said to 

 be found in that which answers to the second stomach, 

 that is, to the hood or honeycomb that portion of 

 the digestive apparatus which is reticulated or formed 

 into cells ; and it is probably on account of the larger 

 size of the cells in the camels, than in those other 

 genera with which we are more familiar, that the mis- 

 take has been made. But when we consider the 

 general use of the reticulated portion of the stomach 

 in all those animals of the order with which we are 

 acquainted (and as they form a large portion of our 

 food, we are much better acquainted with their struc- 

 ture and functions than those of any other animals), 

 we find that a reservoir for water is not one of its 

 uses. The solid or dry food which is received into 

 the paunch or first stomach of the animal, is carried 

 from that to the second, or reticulated part, which 

 rolls it into small lumps or pellets, which are returned 

 one by one to the mouth in order to be chewed, and 

 they are again swallowed, and go directly to the third 

 stomach, or foliated portion, and thence to the fourth 

 or true gastric stomach. The general action of the 

 reticulated part is therefore to form the food of the 

 animal into pellets, and return those pellets to the 

 mouth ; and, in the same order of animals, the same 

 general organ, however it may vary in different ge- 

 nera or different species, always has the same general 

 use. If this were not the case there could not be 

 any useful arrangement of animals, as the known 

 would be no guide whatever to the unknown. 



Well, let us suppose that this second stomach, or 

 hood, is distended with water to the amount stated 

 in the accounts and then let us consider, in the second 

 place, whether the animal could by possibility rumi- 

 nate, or receive any nourishment whatever, retaining 

 the water in that viscus. Is it not evident that grass 

 or leaves, or other vegetable matters, could not be 

 formed into pellets in a bag full of water ; but only 

 by means of an apparatus that could divide its com- 

 parative dry contents into small portions, by bringing 

 its sides in contact with them ? It is unnecessary 

 to answer this question by any lengthened argument, 

 for to any one who reflects for a single moment, the 

 perfect improbability of ruminating, and at the same 



time having any quantity of water whatever in the 

 second stomach must appear. The water would 

 equally prevent both functions of the organ the 

 formation of the pellets, and the returning of them 

 into the mouth ; and without this, food in the paunch 

 or first stomach would be of no use whatever, because 

 that stomach can neither digest the food nor carry it 

 to the places in which it is digested. After the food 

 is chewed it is returned to the third stomach, without 

 passing into the first or second ; and at this stage of 

 the process, and not before, the water which the ani- 

 mal drinks is mixed with it. We have seen already 

 that the second stomach could not act if there were 

 water there, and when the food of the animal is green 

 vegetable matter, water, even in very small quantity, 

 in the first stomach, is attended with very serious 

 consequences, as it ferments, and the paunch is so 

 distended by the gaseous evolution that the animal is 

 in danger of suffocation, or even of bursting. 



Thus it is evident, that the third stomach, the one 

 in which digestion begins, is the first one that 

 receives the drink of ruminant animals, and that 

 water could not be taken into the others without 

 suspending the whole digestive functions as long as it 

 remained there. This must have been known, or at 

 least might have been known, from the time that 

 mankind first began to observe, or, at all events, to 

 kill sheep and cattle for food. It is, therefore, passing 

 strange, that the story of water in the stomach of the 

 camel should not have been exposed and exploded 

 upon physiological grounds as early as anything was 

 written upon the subject ; and that it should still be 

 continued in all the popular books, is a melancholy 

 proof of how badly those who pretend to school us 

 in natural history are qualified for the task. 



There is a small quantity of limpid fluid in the 

 abdomen of most or all ruminating animals ; but this 

 fluid is not water, neither is it contained in any of the 

 digestive organs, nor can it be taken into these. 

 It is an animal secretion, and the chief use of it seems 

 to be to lubricate the very large and complicated in- 

 testines, and also to serve as a yielding support 

 between them and the parietes of the abdomen. 



This fluid is, in all the ruminantia, when in a 

 healthy state, wholesome and pleasant to the taste ; 

 and it may be possible that travellers, when their 

 camels drop down dead in the deserts, may sometimes 

 moisten their parched throats with this fluid ; but it 

 is by no means likely that a camel is, in any one in- 

 sturu-e, killed for the sake of obtaining it. The camel, 

 though a clumsy animal, according to our notions of 

 animal beauty, is a very valuable, and consequently 

 a very highly esteemed animal in those parched 

 countries where it is used for carrying men or 

 lug-gage. It is strong, though not swift ; it is sure- 

 footed ; and it can endure fatigue and bear privations 

 more than any other animal. 



It can also subsist upon harder food than any 

 other beast of burden : and its size, and the length of 

 its neck, enable it to reach the branches of shrubs- and 

 small trees which are above the reach of the ass, which 

 is the animal that comes nearest to the camel in the 

 coarseness of its food. For all these reasons, the 

 camel is most deservedly a favourite with those who 

 use it, and is in no case the subject of wanton de- 

 struction. 



No doubt, many camels perish in the deserts, but, 

 as they can subsist a considerable time upon little 

 ibod, and long without water, they generally perish 



