Chap. 81.] 
THE KIDNEYS. 
73 
larly efficacious in laborious deliveries, if it happens not to 
have touched the ground. 
CHAP. 80. — THE omenttjm: the spleei?-; animals which are 
WITHOUT IT. 
The belly and the intestines are covered with a caul known 
as the omentum," consisting of a fatty, thin membrane; 
except in the case of those animals which are oviparous. To 
this membrane is attached the spleen, which lies on the left 
side, and opposite the liver : sometimes, indeed, it changes 
place with the liver, but such a case is looked upon as nothing 
less than a prodigy. Some persons imagine that a spleen of 
extremely diminutive size exists in the oviparous animals, 
as also in serpents ; at all events, it is to be detected in the 
tortoise, the crocodile, the lizard, and the frog; though it 
is equally certain that it does not exist in the bird known as 
the segocephalos," nor yet in those animals which are des- 
titute of blood. The spleen sometimes offers a peculiar impe- 
diment in running, for which reason the region of the spleen 
is cauterized^*^ in runners who are troubled with pains there. 
It is said also, that if the spleen is removed®^ by an incision, 
animals may survive. There are some persons who think 
that with the spleen man loses the power of laughing, and 
that excessive laughter is caused by the overgrowth of it. 
There is a territory of Asia, known as Scepsis, in which it is 
said that the spleen of the cattle is remarkably small, and 
that from thence it is that remedies for diseases of the spleen 
have been introduced. 
CHAP. 81. THE kidneys: ANIMALS WHICH HAVE EOUE KID- 
NEYS. ANIMALS WHICH HAVE NONE. 
About Briletum and Tharne^'^* the stags have four kidneys : 
while, on the other hand, those animals which have wings and 
scales have^^ none. The kidneys adhere to the upper part of 
9^ Perhaps the godwit, or stone-plover, the Scolopax segocephala of 
Linnaeus. 
9s See also B. xxvi. c. 83. 
^"^ This may be done with safety in dogs or other animals. 
^8 See B. V. c. 32. 9s* See p. 68. 
This is not the case. Birds have kidneys, but of an irregular form. 
