89 



net, or second stomach, has its internal mem- 

 brane hollowed into numerous deep cells, all 

 apparently serving as reservoirs of aliment, to be 

 used only as occasion may require ; while the 

 third stomach is alone appropriated to the im- 

 mediate necessities of the body. Between the 

 end of the gullet, then, and the orifice of this 

 third stomach, extends, through the two first, a 

 long muscle, capable of drawing up the third 

 stomach, so as to receive the alimentary matters 

 directly from the gullet, when the immediate 

 wants of the animal are to be supplied ; but, 

 when the food and drink taken are meant to be 

 used only in its long journeys through the desarts, 

 this muscle is relaxed, and the alimentary mat- 

 ters thus received into the two first stomachs, 

 are transmitted onward by these, only at the ne- 

 cessary intervals. Among quadrupeds, the sto- 

 mach is most muscular in the ant-eater and ar- 

 madillo, and least so in the purely carnivorous, as 

 the lion and tiger. In a very great number also, 

 the gall-bladder is wanting, as in the sloth, rat, 

 horse, camel, goat, deer, elephant,- &c. The 

 relative length of the intestinal tube is usually 

 greater in herbivorous than in carnivorous quad- 

 rupeds, but not always, that of the sloth, for ex- 

 ample, being scarcely equal in length to its body, 

 while that of the seal is almost thirty times 

 longer. I must not leave the digestive organs of 

 quadrupeds without observing, that, when these 

 are no longer put in requisition, as in the case 

 of those that hibernate, as it is called, or sleep 



