12 OUR HUMBLE HELPERS 



not true that the wheat would soon be reduced to 

 powder? Such is the action of the gizzard. Its 

 strong, fleshy walls contract powerfully and knead 

 their contents of sand and seeds without suffering 

 damage themselves from the friction, because of the 

 tough skin that lines their inside and protects them 

 from the roughness of the gravel. In such a mill the 

 hardest kernels are soon reduced to a sort of soup. 



"To make you understand the prodigious power 

 of the gizzard, I cannot do better than relate to you 

 certain experiments performed by a learned Italian, 

 the abbot Spallanzani. A century ago the celebrated 

 abbot, while pursuing his researches on the natural 

 history of animals, caused a number of hens to swal- 

 low some little glass balls. * These balls,' he said, 

 'were sufficiently tough not to break when thrown 

 forcibly on to the ground. After remaining three 

 hours in the hen's gizzard they were for the most 

 part reduced to very tiny pieces with nothing sharp 

 about them, all their edges having been blunted as 

 if they had passed through a mill. I noticed also 

 that the longer these little glass balls remained in 

 the stomach, the finer the powder to which they were 

 reduced. After a few hours they were broken into 

 a multitude of vitreous particles no larger than 

 grains of sand.' " 



"A stomach that can grind glass balls to powder," 

 commented Jules, ' ' is certainly a first-rate mill. J ' 



"You shall hear something still more remark- 

 able, ' ' returned his uncle. ' ' Wait. ' As these balls, ' 

 continued the abbot, ' were polished and smooth, they 



