Man only, and the swine, are subject to swellings in the throat which are mostly caused by the noxious quality of the water[1] which they drink. The upper part of the gullet is called the fauces, the lower the stomach.[2] By this name is understood a fleshy concavity, situate behind the tracheal artery, and joining the vertebral column; it extends in length and breadth like a sort of chasm.[3] Those animals which have no gullet have no stomach either, nor yet any neck or throat, fishes, for example; and in all these the mouth communicates immediately with the belly. The sea-tortoise[4] has neither tongue nor teeth; it can break anything, however, with the sharp edge of its muzzle. After the tracheal artery there is the œsophagus, which is indented with hard asperities resembling bramble-thorns, for the purpose of levigating the food, the incisions[5] gradually becoming smaller as they approach the belly. The roughness at the very extremity of this organ strongly resembles that of a blacksmith's file