$68 Mr. Home’s Observations on the Camel’s Stomach 
It is this beautiful and very curious mechanism which forms 
the peculiar character of the stomach of the camel, dromedary, 
and lama, fitting them to live in the sandy deserts where the 
supplies of water are so very precarious. 
The first and second stomachs of the camel, as well as 
those of the bullock, are lined with a cuticle. 
The third stomach of the camel is so small, and so very 
unlike that of other ruminants, that were it not for the dis- 
tinctness of its orifices it might be overlooked. It is nearly 
spherical, 4 inches in diameter, is not like the third of the 
bullock lined with a cuticle, nor has it any septa projecting 
into it. The cuticle continued from the second stomach ter- 
minates immediately within its orifice, and its surface has a 
faint appearance of honeycombed structure ; but this is so 
slight as to require a close inspection to ascertain it. 
This cavity can answer no other purpose in the economy 
of the animal, than retarding the progress of the food, and 
making it pass by small portions into the fourth stomach, so 
that the process, whatever it is which the food undergoes in 
the third stomach of other ruminants, would appear to be 
wanting in the camel, and consequently not required. 
The fourth stomach lies to the right of the first, and has 
for a great part of its length the appearance of an intestine ; it 
then contracts partially, and the lower portion has a near 
resemblance in its shape to the human stomach. Its whole 
length is 4 feet 4 inches ; when laid open, the internal mem- 
brane of the upper portion is thrown into longitudinal narrow 
folds, which are continued for about three feet of its length ; 
these terminate in a welted appearance ; the rugae are large, 
as in the bullock, but not so prominent, nor so serpentine in 
