Observations on certain parts of the animal oeconomy : inclusive of several papers from the Philosophical transactions, etc. / by John Hunter ... ; with notes by Richard Owen.
- John Hunter
- Date:
- 1840
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Observations on certain parts of the animal oeconomy : inclusive of several papers from the Philosophical transactions, etc. / by John Hunter ... ; with notes by Richard Owen. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
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![surface appears to be full of small perforations, and the cutis from which they have been removed is villous; and these villi are more numerous in some parts than in others, where the sense of touch is required to be delicate or acute. But the inner lining of the gizzard is just the reverse, that surface of the horny substance which is in contact with the gizzard being villous, and when separated, the inner surface of the gizzard appearing perforated. These villi are either the last-formed parts of this horny substance, or are the fibres of which the horny coat is composed. It is probable that this horny substance takes the form of villi that it may be more firmly connected with the gizzard, in which acute sensation is not required. I may remark here, that the experiments made on the digestion of ruminating animals have been very deficient,* arising from this process in them being more complicated than in the stomachs of other animals, and requiring attention to be paid to certain circumstances, which cannot take place in stomachs of only one cavity. The circumstance mentioned by Spallanzani, of ruminating animals voiding the tubes by the anus, shows that the whole food is not necessarily returned into the mouth to be chewed a second time ; for if it were, the tubes would certainly come up likewise, and would as certainly be thrown out of their mouths as improper to be chewed, a circumstance which often really happened. But it was hardly necessary to make experiments to ascertain whether ruminating animals digested meat, when we know that in some cold countries the cattle are fed on dried fish, and most animals eat their own secundines: indeed the circumstance of animals living upon both animal and vegetable food might have taught us that the mode of digesting both (whatever it is) was the same; therefore all that was wanted must have been to discover that mode ; except wre could absurdly conceive that two different modes might take place in the same stomach at the same time. Spallanzani gives the opinion of authors respecting digestion; and so anxious is he to combat the idea of its being fermentation, that he will hardly allow that fermentation ever takes place in the stomach. That fermentation can go on in the stomach there is no doubt; but when that happens, it arises from the powers of digestion being defective. Milk, vegetables of all kinds, wine, and whatever has sugar in its composition, become much sooner sour in some stomachs than they would if left to undergo a spontaneous change out of the body; and even spirits in particular stomachs, almost immediately degenerate into a very strong acid. I am inclined to suppose that it is the sugar which is converted into spirit, and the spirit into acid ; consequently a glass of brandy, from being much stronger, because less diluted, most probably * [This deficiency has recently been supplied by M. Flourens, in an elaborate series of experiments made on living sheep, in which fistulous communications had been established between the external surface and the different cavities of the stomach. See Jlnnales des Sciences Naturelks.']](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21131545_0090.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
