THE 
EDINBURGH JOURNAL 
OF 
NATURAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL SCIENCE. 
FEBRUARY 1830. 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
ART. I.—Observations on the Structure of the Stomach of the 
Peruvian Lama. By Dr. Knox, F.R.S.E. M.W.S. Lecturer 
on Comparative Anatomy, &c. * 
Tue facts and observations contained in this paper were fully 
made out, and their general correctness ascertained somewhat more 
than three years ago. 
The stomach of the Lama has been declared to be “ unlike that 
of the camel, being unprovided with the peculiar apparatus by 
which it is enabled to dispense with the necessity of a daily supply 
of water, even in countries where such supply, from the great heat 
of chine is essential to a degree which those who reside in colder 
and moister regions cannot imagine.” The object of the present 
‘Memoir is to shew that the statements denying to the lama a com- 
pensating and peculiar structure as regards the stomach, are with- 
out the smallest foundation in truth, and that the errors, for such 
they assuredly are, have originated in an unwary application of a 
principle which I had thought all anatomists had known required 
to be employed with great caution, viz. the assuming the structure 
of the young or foetal state to be identical with the adult.T 
* We are obliged to our friend Dr. Knox for permission to make this abstract 
of an important paper which he lately read before the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 
(4th Jan. 1830,) and which we hope to see, in its extended form, in the Trans- 
actions of that learned body. Ep. 
+ Sir Everard Home has inferred, from the examination of the structure of the 
stomach of the young lama, that “ the stomach has a portion of it, as it were, 
imtended to resemble the reservoirs for water in the camel; but they have no 
depth, are only superficial cells, and have no muscular apparatus to close their 
mouths, and allow the solid food to pass into the fourth cavity, or truly digesting 
stomach, without going into those cells.”—Comp. Anat. Vol. V. p. 249. 
VOL. I. 2s 
