Note 1807 — BOOK VIII. THE NATURE OF THE TERRESTRIAL ANIMALS.

As Cuvier remarks, it is impossible that any animal can discharge by vomiting what Pliny terms the “coagulum,” which is the fourth stomach of a ruminant animal; the same substance which, under the name of rennet, is employed to coagulate milk. He conjectures, that the error may have originated in the observation, that occasionally in fish, when suddenly drawn out of the water, the air-bladder is protruded from the mouth, which may have been mistaken for the stomach. The circumstance is mentioned by Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 23, and by Ælian, Anim. Nat. B. iii. c. 19, as well as the vomiting of the bile; respecting this latter, we may remark, that vomiting is produced in various animals, when under the influence of extreme terror.—B.