Kitap 3
8
From what has been said, then, it is clear that the inner coat of the stomach (that containing longitudinal fibres) exists for the purpose of exerting a pull the from to stomach, and that it is only in deglutition that it is active, whereas the external coat, which contains transverse fibres, has been so constituted in order that it may contract upon its contents and propel them forward; this coat furthermore, functions in vomiting no less than in swallowing. The truth of my statement is also borne out by what happens in the channae and synodonts The channa is a kind of sea-perch; a species of Serranus, either S. scriba or S. cabrilla (D'Arcy W. Thompson). cf. Aristotle's Nat. Hist. (D'Arcy Thompson's edition, Oxford, 1910), IV., xi., 538 A, 20. The syndont is not to be identified with certainty, but is supposed to be Dentex vulgaris, that is, an edible Mediterranean perch. It is not the stomach, adds Prof. Thompson, but the air-bladder that gets everted and hangs out of the mouth in fishes, espceially when they are hauled in from a considerable depth. cf. H.A., VIII., ii., 591 B, 5.; the stomachs of these animals are sometimes found in their mouths, as also Aristotle writes in his History of Animals; he also adds the cause of this: he says that it is owing to their voracity.
