RL-MI.NAXTIA. MAMMALIA. BUMIXANI 



157 



carried down the gullet, where, on arriving at the 

 lower part, the lips of the muscular channel, placed at 

 the entrance of the first three stomachs, separate so as 

 to insure its passage into the paunch. In like manner, 

 subsequent to the act of drinking, the margins of the 

 oesophageal groove open, and the water is conveyed into 

 the cells of the reticulum. In the camels a part of the 

 fluid passes into the first cavity, there to be retained 

 by the great water-cells, as a special provision against 

 those contingencies which their mode of existence 

 involves. While the coarse vegetable food is being 

 macerated by the moisture secreted from the wans of 

 the paunch and probably also from the water taken 

 in by the mouth, some of which may have entered the 

 cavity portions of the indigestible mass are transmitted 

 into the second stomach for further maceration, and 

 from thence into the grooved canal above described, 

 to be here moulded into the form of pellets, and 

 returned to the mouth by a kind of reversed peristaltic 

 action. The softened bolus thus brought back into 

 the mouth, is destined to receive a thorough and com- ] 

 plete remastication, constituting that part of the process 

 familiarly termed "chewing the cud." This phenomenon 

 is accompanied with an action of the jaws which differs 

 somewhat in particular species. Thus, it has been 

 shown by Professor Owen that in the camels the bolus 

 is triturated alternately from side to side ; whereas the 

 action of the teeth in the horned ruminants, including 

 the giraffe, is always in one direction it may be from 

 right to left or left to right occasioned by the rotatory 

 motion of the jaw. The necessary reduction of the 

 aliment having been accomplished, it is again trans- 

 ferred to the stomach in a pulpy semifluid condition ; 

 but this time, instead of entering the first or second 

 cavities, it passes directly along the now-closed oeso- 

 phageal groove into the third stomach, or manyplies. 

 In this viscus the superfluous moisture is supposed to 

 be absorbed before the bolus is ultimately transmitted 

 into the fourth stomach, in which organ the true diges- 

 tive act remains to be fulfilled. In the newly-born 

 ruminant, the first, second, and third stomachs are 

 very incompletely developed; and no chewing of the 

 cud being necessary, the food passes uninterruptedly 

 into the fourth. In the calf a peculiar organic acid is 

 secreted by the lining membrane of the true stomach, 

 which, it is well known, possesses the singular power 

 of converting the albumen of milk into curd and whey. 

 In the young, as well as in the adult animal, various 

 foreign substances are occasionally found in the paunch, 

 and sometimes in the reticulum. The concretionary 

 masses are either made up of hair, vegetable fibres, 

 or calcareous particles, generally agglomerated to- 

 gether in a rounded or oval form. The hairy balls 

 found in the calf and cow result from the licking of 

 their own hides, or there of others ; and the individual 

 hairs, on being transferred into the stomach, are col- 

 lected together, and rolled by the action of this organ 

 into the characteristic shapes above mentioned. In 

 the camel we find them in the form of pedunculated 

 pellets, strung together in grape-like bunches. In the 

 chamois, the formation of the so-called bezoar stones, 

 takes places in consequence of a partiality for saline 

 matters, which the animal gratifies by licking fragments 



of rock containing saltpetre. Thus a variety of earthy 

 and silicious particles are at the same time swallowed, 

 and by the secretions and peristaltic action of the 

 stomach, are agglutinated together, and converted into 

 curious pebble-like formations. 



Before leaving this part of the subject, we deem it 

 right to notice our discovery of two very remarkable 

 peculiarities occurring in the alimentary canal of the 

 aberrant genus Camelopardalis. The first of these con- 

 sists in the presence of pouch-like folds in connection 

 with the compound glands of the intestine ; whilst the 

 second is a similar, but far more striking development 

 of the glands, situated close to the opening by which 

 the small intestine communicates with the large colon 

 and coecum. This structure we believe to be altogether 

 unique throughout the entire mammalian series; and 

 although we first directed attention to it at the Glasgow 



Fig. 55. 



Remarkable compound gland situated at the junction of the large 

 and small intestines of the Giraffe. 



meeting of the British Association in 1855, and have 

 subsequently given details in the third volume of the 

 new series of the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, 

 and in the article " Euminantia," published in Dr. 

 Todd's " Cyclopaedia of Anatomy and Physiology," we 

 make no apology for again specially inviting the atten- 



