10 



STRUCTURE AND OFFICE OF THE STOMACH. 



farther purpose, by dissolving its contents sufficiently to 

 prevent the necessity of rumination, or the use of a gizzard. 

 The second cavity performs the same office as the plicated 

 portion of the fourth cavity of the ruminant, and the fourth 

 is that in which the chyle is formed. This complex struc- 

 ture of the storaach in the wrhale tribe, although it gives it 

 an appearance of great similarity to that of the ruminant. 

 Different from jg j^q^. jj^ ^[j formed on the same principle, since the ad- 



the ruminating ...... . 



tribe, though a ditional cavities in the rummant are to prepare the food for 

 similarity in the process of digestion ; while in the whale triue no siish 

 preparation is required ; but as the hslies they feed upon are 

 swallowed whole, and have large sharp bones which would 

 injure any surface not defended by cuticle, a reservoir be- 

 came necessary, in which they may be dissolved and con- 

 verted into nourishment, without retarding the digestion 

 of the soft parts. The very narrow communication between 

 the second, third, and fourth cavities, resembles the open- 

 ing between the cardiac and pyloric portion in fishes. 



The stomachs of this tribe of animals are therefore in- 

 troduced here, as being next in order with respect to 

 the complexity of parts, and having by the division of them 

 led me to the present investigation, although it is by no 

 means their proper place, with, respect to their mode of di- 

 gestion. 

 Ammals near- fhe animals, nearest allied to the ruminants in their mode 

 niinants. ^^ digestion, are those which, like them, retain a portion of 



food ill the cardiac extremity of the stomach, that it may 

 undergo a change, before it is submitted to the action of 

 the solvent liquor; and when so hard as to render it neces- 

 sary, return it again into the mouth, to be masticated a 

 second time. 

 Hare and rab' The hare and rabbit are of this kind ; the cardiac portion 

 ^'^* of the stomach is never completely emptied, and they occar 



Kuminatcoe- sionally ruminate. In proof of both these facts, a rabbit, 

 casionally. which had been seven days without food, died, and the car- 

 diac portion of the stomach was found to contain more 

 than half of its usual quantity of contents: they were 

 rather softer than common, and a number, amounting to 

 50 or 60 of distinctly formed pellets, the size of shot, were 

 collected together in the cardiac extremity, immediately 



belpw 



