STRUCTURAL PECULIARITIES AND ANATOMICAL NOTES 35 



wonderfully complicated and peculiar mechanism of 

 a camel's interior a subject upon which the greatest 

 ignorance prevails, and about which a great amount 

 of doubt still exists, and that is, the water-carrying 

 capacity of the animal itself. 



The camel, it must be distinctly understood, has Water 



capacity 



not what in a strictly technical sense can be called a 

 special or extra stomach for the storage of water, but 

 it has an arrangement of deep cells attached to the 

 rumen, for the reception and preservation of water, 

 and the enlargement of the cells of the reticulum for 

 the same purpose. The rumen is divided into two 

 portions, a right and a left, by a longitudinal ridge of 

 muscular fibres which begin at the mouth. In the 

 right is a series of cells capable of holding about a 

 quart of water, while on the left is a larger series, which 

 when full contain from one to one and a half gallon. 

 When these cells are full, the liquid is prevented from 

 being mixed with the food by the contraction of the 

 orifice of each cell, and it can be forced out at pleasure 

 by the action of a muscular expansion covering the 

 bottom of this cellular apparatus. 



The deep cells of the reticulum are arranged in 

 twelve rows, and are formed by muscular bands inter- 

 secting each other transversely. This second compart- 

 ment in the camel appears to be destined exclusively 

 as a reservoir for water, never receiving solid food as 

 in the ox or sheep ; and, as we have already seen, the 

 remasticated food passes by the entrances of the first 

 and second compartments, along a passage direct into 

 the third. 



Sir E. Home has observed that 'while the camel 



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