GF NATURAL HISTORY. 238 



^ not difcover, either in the ftomach or the long track of the 

 « inteftines ; and therefore conchided, that they had palTed 

 ' out at the vent *.' 



The fame author made a fecond experiment feemingly 

 i\i\\ more crueL He fixed twelve fmall lancets, very fnarp 

 both at the points and edges, in a fimilar ball of lead. < The 



< lancets/ fays he, ' were fuch as I ufe for the direction of 



* fmall animals. The ball was given to a turkey cock, and 

 « left eight hours in the ftomach j at the expiration of which 



* time that organ was opened ; but nothing appeared ex- 

 ^ cept the naked ball, the twelve lancets having been broken 



< to pieces. I difcovered three of them in the large intef- 



< tines, pointlefs, and mixed v/ith the excrements ; the other 



* nine were miffing, and had probably been voided at the 



< vent. The ftomach was as found and entire as that vv'hich 



* had received the needles. Two capons, of which one was 



* fubjecled to the experiment with the needles, and the 

 ^ other with the lancets, fuftained them equally well.' 



The fmall ftones fo commonly found in the ftomachs of 

 many of the feathered tribes, have been fuppofed to fheatii 

 the gizzard, and to enable it to digefi, or at leaft to break 

 down into fmall fragments, glafs, iron, wood, ftones, and 

 other hard, and even fliarp-pointed fabftances. Spdanzr-.ni 

 has endeavoured to prove, that the mufcular acSlIon of the 

 gizzard is equally powerful, whether the fmall ftones are 

 prefent or abfent. To afcertain this point, he took wood- 

 pigeons the moment they efcaped from the eggt fed and nurf- 

 ed them himlelf till they were able to peck : « They were 



* then,' continues our author, < confined in a cage, and fup- 



* plied at firft with vetches foaked in v/arm water, and after- 



* v/ards in a dry and hard ftate. In a month after they had 



< begun to peck, hard bodies, fuch as tin tubes, glafs globules, 

 « and fragments of broken glafs, were introduced with the 

 f food. Care was taken that each pigeon fliould fwallow on- 



* Spalanzani's Diff. vol, i, page ic. 



