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As to the Second, the Provifion that is made for their Sustenance in their continued Travels over fandy Defarts, the fame Academifts obferve, That at the Top of the fecond Ventricle (for they are ruminant Creatures, and have four Stomachs) there were several square Holes, which were the Orifices of about twenty Cavities, made like Sacks placed between the two.. Membranes, which do compofe the Substance of this Ventricle. The View of these Sacks: made us to think, that they might well be the Refervatories, where Pliny fays, that Camels do a long time keep the Water, which they drink in great Abundance when they meet with it, to fupply the Wants which they may have thereof in the dry Defarts, wherein they are used to travel; and where it is faid, that those that do guide them, are fometimes forced, by Extremity of Thirst, to open their Bellies, in which they do find Water.

That fuch an Animal as this, fo patient of long Thirst, fhould be bred in fuch droughty and parched Countries, where it is of fuch, eminent Ufe for travelling over thofe dry and fandy Defarts, where no Water is to be had, fometimes in two or three Days Journey, no, candid and confiderate Perfon but muft needs acknowledge to be an Effect of Providence and Defign.

Such Animals as feed naturally upon Flefh both Quadrupeds and Birds, becaufe fuch kind of Food is high and rank, do qualify it, the one by fwallowing the Hair, or Fur of the

Beafts

Beafts they prey upon, the other by devouring fome Part of the Feathers of the Birds they gorge themselves with, not electively, but because they cannot, or will not, take the Pains fully to plume them. And therefore the Parifian Academifts do rationally referr the Death of one of the Lions whom they diffected, to the Feeding of him with too fucculent and delicate Meat. For (fay they) we know, that fome time before his Death he was feveral Months without going out of his Den, and that it was hard to make him eat. That for this Reafon fome Remedies were prefcribed to him, and among others the eating only the Flesh of young Animals, and thofe alive. And that those which look'd to the Beasts of the Park of Vicennes, to make this Food more. delicate, did ufe a Method very extraordinary; which was, they flead Lambs alive, and thus made him eat feveral; which at the first revived him, creating in him an Appetite, and making him brisk. But it is probable that this Food engender'd too much Blood, and which was too fubtile for an Animal to whom Nature had not given the Industry of fleaing thofe which he eat. It being credible, that the Hair, Wool, Feathers and Scales, which all Animals of Prey do fwallow, are a feasonable and neceffary corrective, to prevent their Greediness from filling themselves with too fucculent a Food.

Though I have declared in the Beginning of this Work, that the Means, whereby cartilagi

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nous Fishes raife and fink themselves in the Water, and reft and abide in what Depth they please, is not yet certainly known; yet I fhall propound a Conjecture concerning it, which was firft fuggefted to me by Mr. Peter Dent, late Phyfician in Cambridge, viz. that it is by the Help of Water which they take in and let out by two Holes in the lower Part of their Abdomen, or Belly, near the Vent, or not far off it. The Flesh of this Sort of Fish being lax and fpungey, and nothing fo firm, folid and weighty, as that of the Bony Fishes; and there being a good Quantity of Air contained in the Cavity of their Abdomen, they cannot fink in the Water, without letting in fome of it by these Holes (the Orifices whereof are opened and shut at Pleasure by the Help of Muscles provided for that purpofe) into the Hollow of their Bellies, whereby they preponderate the Water, and defcend; and when they would afcend by a Compreffion wrought by the Mufcles of the Abdomen they force out the Water again, or at least so much of it as may fuffice to give that Degree of Levity they need or defire. If it be found, by Experience, that the Bodies of these Fishes, without this Ballast, would naturally float in the Water, and that they do really admit Water into their Bellies, then this Conjecture may have fome Probability or Truth in it, otherwise not.,

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Upon the Contemplation and Confideration of thofe various Ways and Contrivances which Nature (I mean the Divine Wisdom) hath

made

347 made ufe of for preparing the Chyle, feparating the nutritious Juice from the groffer Parts of the Aliment, and the feveral Humours and Spirits from the Blood, I cannot but admire her great Wisdom, Art and Curiosity. For fhe hath not only employed all those Methods and Devices, which Chymifts have either learned by Imitation of her, or invented of them. felves, for annalizing of Bodies, feparating their Parts, the pure from the impure, and extracting their Spirits, &c. as Maceration in the firft Stomach or Paunch of ruminating Creatures, and in the Craws of Birds; Comminution by grinding in the Mouths of viviparous Quadrupeds, and in the Gizzards of Poultry; Fermentation in the Stomachs of moft Terreftrial, and all Aquatick Animals; Expreffion and Squeezing, in the Omafus of ruininant Quadrupeds, and in the Inteftines of all Creatures, by the Motion of the Midriff, and other Muscles of the Belly, forcing the Chyle out of the Faces, or Excrements, into the Lacteal Veins; Straining, or Percolation, by all the Vi fcera of the Body; which are but as fo many Colanders to feparate feveral Juices from the Blood: And, laftly, Digeftion and Circulation, in the Spermatick Parts and Veffels, and perhaps alfo in the Brain. I fay, it hath not only made use of these Operations, but it hath quite out-done the Chymifts, effecting that by a gentle Heat, which they cannot perform without great Strefs of Fire. As for Inftance, in the Stomach of a Dog, preparing a Liquor

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Part II. that diffolves Bones; and in the Bodies of fome Infects, a Liquor which feems to be as highly acid and corrofive, as Oil of Vitriol, or Spirit of Nitre, viz. that which is inftilled into the Blood when they fting. It is an Experiment I have met with in fome Books, and made myself, that if you put Blue-Bottles or other blue Flowers into an Ant-Hill, they will presently be stained with red the Reason which thefe Authors render not) is because the Ants thruft in their Stings into the Flowers, and inftill into or drop upon them a small Mite of their stinging Liquor, which hath the fame Effect that Oil of Vitriol would have in changing their Colour, which is a Sign that both Liquors are of the fame Nature.

Cafper Bartholine hath obferved, that where the Gullet perforates the Midriff, the carneous Fibres of that muscular Part are inflected and arcuate, as it were a Sphincter embracing and clofing it faft, by a great Providence of Na ture, left in the perpetual Motion of the Diaphragm, the upper Orifice of the Stomach fhould gape, and caft out the Victuals as faft as it received it. And Peyerus thinks he hath obferved, that in ruminating Creatures the Connection of the Gullet with the Diaphragm is far ftraiter and stronger than in Man and other Animals, to the end that there should not be more than one Morfel forced out at once. For that external Sphincter inhibits a too great Dilatation of the Gullet, and doth as it were

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