CHAP. IV.
Of the Stomachs of Quadrupeds.
From the Neck, let us descend to the Stomach, a Part as of absolute Necessity to the Being and Well-being of Animals, so is in the several Species of Quadrupeds, sized, contrived, and made with the utmost Variety and Art.[a] What Artist, what Being, but the infinite Conservator of the World, could so well adapt every Food to all the several Kinds of those grand Devourers of it! Who could so well sute their Stomachs to the Reception and Digestion thereof; one kind of Stomach to the Carnivorous, another to the Herbaceous Animals; one fitted to digest by bare Mastication; and a whole set of Stomachs in others, to digest with the Help of Rumination! Which last Act, together with the Apparatus for that Service, is so peculiar, and withal so curious an Artifice of Nature, that it might justly deserve a more particular Enquiry; but having formerly mention’d it[b], and least I should be too tedious, I shall pass it by.
FOOTNOTES:
[a] The peculiar Contrivance and Make of the Dromedary’s or Camel’s Stomach, is very remarkable, which I will give from the Parisian Anatomists: At the top of the Second [of the 4 Ventricles] there were several square Holes, which were the Orifices of about 30 Cavities, made like Sacks placed between the two Membranes, which do compose the Substance of this Ventricle. The View of these Sacks made us to think that they might well be the Reservatories, where Pliny saith, that Camels do a long Time keep the Water, which they drink in great Abundance——to supply the Wants thereof in the dry Desarts, &c. Vid. Memoirs, &c. Anat. of Dromedary, p. 39. See also Peyer, Merycol. L. 2. c. 3.