176 THE VITAL FUNCTIONS. 



been ascertained ; and a fourtli, which receives 

 and digests the food after rumination. Those her- 

 bivorous animals which do not ruminate, as the 

 Horse and Ass, have only one stomach ; but the 

 upper portion of it is lined with cuticle, and appears 

 to perform some preparatory office, which renders 

 the food more easily digestible by the lower portion 

 of the same cavity.* 



The remarkable provision above alluded to in 

 the Camel, an animal which nature has evidently 

 intended as the inhabitant of the sterile and arid 

 regions of the East, is that of reservoirs of water, 

 which, when once tilled, retain their contents for a 

 very long time, and may minister not only to the 

 wants of the animal that possesses it, but also to 

 those of man. The second stomach of the Camel 

 has a separate compartment, to which is attached a 

 series of cellular appendages, (exhibited on a small 

 scale, in Fig. 315): in these the water is retained 

 by strong muscular bands, which close the orifices 

 of the cells, while the other }X)rtions of the stomach 

 are performing their usual functions. By the re- 

 laxation of these muscles, the water is gradually 

 allowed to mix with the contents of the stomach; 

 and thus the Camel is enabled to support long 

 marches across the desert without receiving any 

 fresh supply. The Arabs, who traverse those ex- 

 tensive plains, accompanied by these useful ani- 

 mals, are, it is said, sometimes obliged, when faint, 

 and in danger of perishing from thirst, to kill one 

 of their camels, for the sake of the water contained 

 in these reservoirs, which they always tind to be 

 pure and wholesome. It is stated by those who 



* Home, Phil. Trans, 8vo. 1806, p. 370. 



