PARTS OF ANIMALS, III. xiv. 



modify them : for instance, if the food is thorny and 

 woody and therefore not easy to concoct, in which 

 case the animal has several stomachs, e.g. the camel ; 

 so also have the horned animals, as they have not front 

 teeth in both jaws. Thus also the camel has not the 

 two rows of front teeth either, although it has no 

 horns ; this is because it is more necessary for the 

 camel to have several stomachs than to have all these 

 front teeth. So, as it resembles the animals which 

 lack the upper front teeth in that it has several 

 stomachs, therefore the arrangement of its teeth 

 is that which normally accompanies the multiple 

 stomachs : in other words, it lacks these front teeth, 

 as they would be no use to it. And also, as its food 

 is thorny, and as the tongue has of necessity to be 

 of a fleshy character, Nature has made use of the 

 earthy matter saved from the missing teeth to make 

 the roof of the mouth hard. Again, the camel 

 ruminates as the horned animals do, because it has 

 stomachs that resemble theirs. Every one of the 

 horned animals (such as the sheep, the ox, the goat, 

 the deer, and the like) has several stomachs ; and the 

 purpose of them is this : Since the mouth is deficient 

 in teeth, the service which it performs upon the food 

 is deficient ; and so one stomach after another 

 receives the food, which is quite untreated when it 

 enters the first stomach, more treated in the next, 

 completely treated in the next, and a smooth pulp 

 in the next. And that is why these animals have 

 several such places or parts, the names of which are 

 (1) the paunch (rumen), (2) the net or honeycomb-bag 

 {reticulum), (3) the manyplies (omasum), (4) the reed" 

 (ahomasum). For the relation of these to each other 



° Or, true stomach. 



k2 291 



