g STRUCTURE AND OFFICE OF THE STOMACH. 



these disappeared, and it became very thin and smooth. 

 This is seen most readily in the human stomach, and in 

 those of carnivorous animals. 

 Cannot per- Such distention enables us to examine the internal struc- 



form Its- fuiic- ^^.g ^^ parts, but this is not to lead us away from their 

 tions when ' , . ■ _ 



overdistended. more natural appearance; since the functions of this mem- 

 brane could no more go on were it unfolded to a great ex- 

 tent, than the muscular actions of the outer coat, in an 

 overstretched state of its fibres, 

 H«nce a child In proof of this observation, I have known an instance of 

 too rauch^''"^ a child three years old, who, being left alone at dinner, ate 

 so large a quantity of apple-pudding, that it died, which 

 raised suspicion of its having been poisoned. On exami- 

 nation after death, the whole stomach was distended to its 

 utmost extent, and rendered quite tense, which was the only 

 apparent cause of the child's death. 



Mr. Home next proceeds to describe the stomachs of a 

 considerable number of animals, his able and minute ex- 

 amination of which is illustrated by several excellently en- 

 graved plates; after which he gives the following general 

 observations. 

 Process of dU In the stomachs of ruminating animals, the processes the 

 gestionmost f^Q^j undergoes before it is converted into chyle are more 

 minating ani- complex than in any others. It is cropped from the ground 

 mals. by the fore teeth, then passes into the paunch, where it is 



mixed with the food in that cavity ; and it is deserving of 

 First stage of remark, that a certain portion is always retained there; for 

 is|)rocess. although a bullock is frequently kept without food seven 

 days before it is killed, the paunch is always found more 

 than half full; and as the motion in that cavity is known to 

 be rotatory by the air balls found there being all spherical or 

 oval with the hairs laid in the same direction, the contents 

 must be intimately mixed together; the food is also acted 

 on by the secretions belonging to the first and second cavi- 

 ties; for although they are lined with a cuticle, they have 

 secretions peculiar to them. In the second cavity these apr 

 pear to be conveyed through the papillae, which ia the deer 

 are conical ; and when examined by a lens the focus of which 

 is I an inch, they are found to have three distinct orifices, and 

 tliat part of each papilla next the point is semitransparent. 



These 



