EXPERIMENTS ON DIGESTION. 
283 
parative Anatomy” ought to find a place in the library of every 
veterinary surgeon. “The organs of smell are laminated — placed 
in cavities, or depressions excavated on the anterior part of the 
face, and protected by cartilages, as in higher animals, but have 
no posterior opening into the interior of the body, on account of 
the density of the element here respired. The olfactory nerves, 
arising alone from the rudimentary hemispheres of the brain, and 
provided with large olfactory tubercles, perforate the anterior part 
of the skull, corresponding with the cerebriform plate of the eth- 
moid bone, and immediately spread upon the numerous parallel or 
radiating laminae, covered with a delicate and extensive mucous 
membrane. These numerous nasal laminae, covered with the pi- 
tuitary membrane, are thus more or less exposed on the surface of 
the face to the contact of the surrounding element ; and a fold of 
the integuments, supported by a cartilaginous plate, generally hangs 
like a valve over the middle of each nasal cavity. The nasal car- 
tilage protecting each cavity partially divides its entrance into 
two, so that the water passes freely through its interior, and over 
the extensive surface of the olfactory laminae, during the lateral 
motions of the head and the progressive movements of the body. 
By the separation of the organs of smell from the respiratory pas- 
sages in fishes, their great sensibility and delicate structure are 
protected from the violent and incessant action of the currents 
of water required for respiration*.” 
EXPERIMENTS ON DIGESTION. 
By Professors TlEDEMANN and GMELIN, of the University of 
Heidelberg. 
THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS OF THE HORSE AND DOG IN A STATE 
OF FASTING. 
The State of the Stomach . — If the abdominal cavity of a horse 
or dog just killed, and to which no food has been lately given, is 
opened, the stomach will be found empty, and strangely contracted 
upon itself by the contraction of its muscular tunic. No motion 
is perceived in it. The folds of the peritoneum extending towards 
the greater or lesser curvature, or the epiploon, present surfaces 
of more than usual extent, on account of the contraction of the 
stomach. The bloodvessels ramifying, whether between the peri- 
toneal laminae, or along the curvatures, or on the parietes of this 
viscus, seem to pursue a more than usual winding course, and 
* Grant’s Outlines, p. 291. 
