LECTURE IV. 171 



maceration, generally in warm and moist 

 places, a kind of cooking process, for which 

 probably the complex stomachs of ruminat- 

 ing and other animals are designed. In 

 ruminating animals which have four sto- 

 machs, the first or paunch, is a reservoir 

 from which the food is thrown up to be re- 

 masticated ; the fourth digests the food ; 

 but the exact function of the intermediate 

 stomachs is unknown. Mr. Hunter has 

 not omitted to display the contrivance by 

 which in the calf, the milk is made to pass 

 directly into the fourth stomach for diges- 

 tion, without entering the others. The 

 crops of birds and various other animals are 

 also to be considered as macerating pouches, 

 and which gradually supply materials for 

 the operation of the gizzard. Their con- 

 tents are likewise sometimes regurgitated, 

 for thus does the bee store its cell with 

 honey, and some birds feed their young. 



Mr. Hunter was fully apprised that many 

 of the insects, and of the lower kinds of 

 animals have complex stomachs, crops, and 

 gizzards J and he has shown these facts 



