Chap. 79.] 
THE INTESTINES. 
71 
indeed, in no part of the body is the skin more fine ; for this 
reason it is, also, that we experience such peculiar pleasure in 
scratching the parts in its vicinity. Hence it is, that in battles 
and gladiatorial combats, many persons have been known to 
be pierced through the midriff, and to die in the act of 
laughing.^^ 
CHAP. 78. THE BELLY ! ANIMALS WHICH HAVE NO BELLY. 
WHICH AEE THE ONLY ANIMALS THAT VOMIT. 
In those animals which have a stomach, below the diaphragm 
the belly is situate. In other animals it is single, but in 
those which ruminate it is double ; in those, again, which 
are destitute of blood, there is no belly, for the intestinal 
canal commences in some of them at the mouth, and returns to 
that part, as is the case with the saepia and the polypus. In 
man it is connected with the extremity of the stomach, and 
the same with the dog. These are the only creatures that 
have the belly more narrow at the lower part ; hence it is, 
too, that they are the only ones that vomit, for on the belly 
being filled, the narrowness at its extremity precludes the food 
from passing ; a thing that cannot possibly be the case with 
the animals in which the belly is more capacious at the ex- 
tremity, and so leaves a free passage for the food to the lower 
parts of the body. 
CHAP. 79. THE SMALL GUTS, THE PRONT INTESTINES, THE ANUS, 
THE COLON. THE CAUSES OF THE INSATIATE VORACITY OE CER- 
TAIN ANIMALS. 
After the belly we find in man and the sheep the lactes,''^^ 
the place of which in other animals is occupied by the 
hillae i*'^^ it is through these organs that the food passes. 
We then find the larger intestines, which communicate with 
the anus, and which in man consist of extremely sinuous 
folds. Those animals which have the longest intestinal canal, 
are the most voracious ; and those which have the belly the 
most loaded with fat, are the least intelligent. There are 
some birds, also, which have two receptacles ; the one of 
which is the crop, in which they stow away the food which 
"With Sardonic laughter, as Hardouin remarks. 
Or small guts. Or front intestines. 
