animals

Monday, August 28, 2006

The elephant

has a gut constricted into chambers, so constructed
that the animal appears to have four stomachs; in it the food is
found, but there is no distinct and separate receptacle. Its viscera
resemble those of the pig, only that the liver is four times the
size of that of the ox, and the other viscera in like proportion,
while the spleen is comparatively small.

Much the same may be predicated of the properties of the
stomach and the gut in oviparous quadrupeds, as in the land
tortoise, the turtle, the lizard, both crocodiles, and, in fact, in
all animals of the like kind; that is to say, their stomach is one and
simple, resembling in some cases that of the pig, and in other cases
that of the dog.