Digestive System Sjpecial, 89 



the Stomach. The food is first swallowed only half masticated ; the 

 coarse bolus opens the lips of the groove, and falls into the Eumen ; 

 after maceration there, portions of the mass are transmitted into the 

 Eeticulum, and from thence into the demi-canal to he moulded into 

 the form of pellets, which are carried up to the mouth by an anti- 

 peristaltic action of the muscular coat of the (Esophagus : remasti- 

 cation renders the food softer, so that when it is again swallowed it 

 passes through the groove (the walls of which are stimulated to 

 contract) into the Maniplies, and then to the Abomasus. 



In the Cete the Stomach is divided into several cavities : the first 

 is a continuation of, and similar to the (Esophagus ; its commence- 

 ment is indicated by the orifice, surrounded by large irregular pro- 

 jections, leading into the second stomach, beyond which it dilates 

 into a heart-shaped cavity; the second stomach is round, and leads 

 by an oblique orifice into the third, which is likewise round, but 

 small, and not visible externally ; the fourth cavity is long and 

 narrow, and pursues a serpentine course, almost like an intestine. 

 The digestive process goes on in, or is assisted by the fluids in each 

 and all of the cavities. This complex Stomach, being found even in 

 the predaceous Phocaena orca (Grampus), affords an example of 

 special development to meet special need ; here, the need of extract- 

 ing all the nutriment available, to maintain animal heat in a system 

 in constant contact with a heat-absorbing medium. 



It is singular, when this is considered, to find in the vegetable- 

 feeding Sirenia a less complex Stomach than in the carnivorous 

 ete ; in the Sirenia the Stomach assumes the constricted type, but 

 has two appended sacculi opening on the pyloric side of the con- 

 striction, and a special spiral gland in the conical pouch that projects 

 from the extremity of the cardiac portion : the (Esophagus enters 

 the cardia in a valvular manner. 



Among the In-Enamellata^ Cholsepus (Two-toed Sloth) has a com- 

 plex Stomach : the cardiac compartment is divided into' a left and 

 right portion, of which the left terminates below in a short ca3cal ap- 

 pendage : between the right-cardiac and the pyloric portion a second 

 cavity intervenes : the third, or pyloric cavity, being quite distinct, 

 and separated by a constriction from the rest of the Stomach. 



is Intestini-form, e.g. 



Quadrumana, In Semnopithecus EntelluSj where the left, or car- 

 diac half forms a large cavity, many times constricted, while the 

 right or pyloric portion is long, narrow, and intestini-form, and 



