182 FORM OF THE STOMACH. 



abdomen (fig. 108). The form of this stomach varies much, 

 according to the nature of the aliment to be digested. Where 

 the food is animal flesh, which is easily dissolved, the stomach 

 is small, and appears like a mere enlargement of the alimentary 

 tube this is the case in the Cat tribe, for example. In Her- 

 bivorous animals, on the contrary, the stomach is very large, 

 the food being delayed there a long time on account of the 

 difficulty with which it is digested ; and the principal part of 

 its cavity is not a simple enlargement of the alimentary tube, 

 but a bag or sac that bulges out, as it were, on the left side of 

 that canal. By the degree of this bulging, we can judge of 

 the nature of the food on which the animal is destined to 

 live. Thus in Man (fig. 108), the large end of the stomach, 

 situated on the left side (the right side of the figure as we 

 look at it), is moderately developed; showing, as we might 

 expect from the form of his teeth, as well as from his natural 

 tastes, that he is adapted for a diet in which animal and 

 vegetable food are mixed. In the purely carnivorous tribes, 

 this large end of the stomach is almost deficient ; whilst in 

 the herbivorous races, it is enormously developed, and some- 

 times forms a distinct pouch. 



(Esophagus 



Intestine ^,^_^^^^mi 



Pylorus 4thStom. 2d Stom. 1st Stom. 

 Fig. 109. STOMACHS OF THE SHEEP. 



198. The most complex form of the stomach among Mam- 

 mals, is that which we find in the animals that ruminate or 

 chew the cud. It possesses, in fact, no less than four distinct 

 cavities, through all of which the food has to pass during the 



