After the belly we find in man and the sheep the " lactes,"[1] the place of which in other animals is occupied by the "hillæ:"[2] it is through these organs that the food passes. We then find the larger intestines, which communicate with the anus, and which in man consist of extremely sinuous folds. Those animals which have the longest intestinal canal, are the most voracious; and those which have the belly the most loaded with fat, are the least intelligent. There are some birds, also, which have two receptacles; the one of which is the crop, in which they stow away the food which they have just swallowed, while the other is the belly, into which they discharge the food when it is duly prepared and digested; this is the case with the domestic fowl, the ring-dove, the pigeon, and the partridge. The other birds are in general destitute of crop, but then they have a more capacious gorge, the jackdaw, the raven, and the crow, for instance: some, again, are constituted in neither manner, but have the belly close to the gorge, those, for instance, which have the neck very long and narrow, such as the porphyrio.[3]

In the solid-hoofed animals the belly is rough and hard, while in some land animals it is provided with rough asperities like teeth,[4] and in others, again, it has a reticulated surface like that of a file. Those animals which have not the teeth on both sides, and do not ruminate, digest the food in the belly, from whence it descends to the lower intestines. There is an organ in all animals attached in the middle to the navel, and in man similar in its lower part to that of the swine, the name given thereto by the Greeks being " colon," a part of the body which is subject to excruciating pains.[5] In dogs this gut is extremely contracted, for which reason it is that they are unable to ease it, except by great efforts, and not without considerable suffering. Those animals with which the food passes at once from the belly through the straight intestine, are of insatiate appetite, as, for instance, the hind-wolf,[6] and among birds the diver. The elephant has four[7] bellies; the rest of its intestines are similar to those of the swine, and the lungs are four times as large as those of the ox. The belly in birds is fleshy, and formed of a callous substance. In that of young swallows there are found little white or pink pebbles, known by the name of " chelidonii," and said to be employed in magical incantations. In the second belly of the heifer there is a black tufa found, round like a ball,[8] and of no weight to speak of: this, it is generally thought, is singu- larly efficacious in laborious deliveries, if it happens not to have touched the ground.