i 6'2 Mr, Home on the Structure of the Stomachs 
the gut has its origin. The spleen surrounds both the cardiac 
and pyloric portion, and is represented in the engraving. Vide 
Plate XIII. fig- 4. 
The description of the stomach of the cod fish by mistake 
is placed the second of these descriptions. 
Observations on the Stomachs Which have been described. 
In the stomachs of ruminating animals, the processes the 
food undergoes before it is converted into chyle, are more 
complex than in any others. It is cropped from the ground by 
the fore teeth, then passes into the paunch, where it is mixed 
with the food in that cavity ; and it is deserving of remark, 
that a certain portion is always retained there; for 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 
hair 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 cavities ; for although they 
are lined with a cuticle, they have secretions peculiar to them. 
In the second cavity these appear to be conveyed through the 
papillae, which in the deer are conical (Vide Plate V. fig. 3), 
and when examined by a lens whose focus is i inch, they 
are found to have three distinct orifices, and that part of 
each papilla next the point is semitransparent. These secre- 
tions are ascertained by Dr. Stevens's experiments to have a 
solvent power in a slight degree, since vegetable substances 
contained in tubes were dissolved in the paunch of a sheep. * 
* Dissertaiio Pbysiologica inauguralis de Alimentorum concoctions. Autore Ed- 
v/ardo Stevens, Edinb. 1777. 
