CAMELS WITH SOUTH AFGHAN EXPEDITION, 1878-9. 707 
should be too soon exhausted. True, these water pouches 
may be called extra stomachs, but they are not large reser¬ 
voirs ; it is equally true that their muscular mouths prevent 
lavish expenditure, but we must not, in our enthusiastic ad¬ 
miration of nature’s provisions, run away with the idea that 
camels are absolutely independent of frequent watering ; it is 
a dangerous doctrine to adopt on a campaign, where we want 
by every means to economise the animal’s strength, and 
draw as little as possible upon this reserve. But to return 
to the ordinary course of the food : the rumen being filled 
with partially masticated food the animal usually lies down, 
experiences a sense of repletion, and the contents being rolled 
about and mixed with the fluid contained, are prepared to 
be passed into the second stomach (reticulum or honeycomb 
shaped), where pellet after pellet is separated and forced up 
the gullet into the mouth, this time to be more effectually 
masticated; this process is called “ chewing the cud,” and 
in the camel the food is ground alternatelij in opposite direc¬ 
tions from side to side ; in other ruminants this is not done 
so regularly. After still further admixture with saliva, the 
importance of which fluid is too often overlooked, it again 
passes down the gullet, but in such a pulpy state as to glide 
along a passage to the third stomach, and pass by the entrances 
into the first and second. The third stomach is called the 
omasum or manyplies, and has numbers of broad folds of 
lining membrane, resembling leaves of a book, which are 
covered with numerous prominences or papillae; between these 
the pabulum undergoes still further trituration and mucous 
admixture, and is then forced into the fourth stomach or 
abomasum, which is lined by a velvet-like membrane here 
it meets with the gastric fluid, usually looked upon as the 
most active agent in digestion; it then passes on to the first 
small intestine (duodenum), the commencement of which 
forms a distinct pouch in the camel, where it is subjected to 
the action of yet two more juices (bile from the liver, and 
the pancreatic secretion) ; here the aliment becomes fit for 
the separation of the blood material, which is taken up to 
certain glands, and conveyed into the circulation by means of 
a set of conduits named lacteals, from the milk-like appear¬ 
ance of the fluid contained. The remaining mass is passed 
on through the small and large intestines, during which 
passage still further nutritious matter is selected from it, 
until ultimately superfluities are expelled in the form of 
excrement, this being in the camel particularly rich in 
ammonia, as proved by sal ammoniac being prepared from it. 
There are peculiarities in the anatomy of the liver, and 
