ALIMENTARY CANAL OF BIMANA. 



435 



stomach averages from thirteen to fifteen inches; its widest 

 diameter five inches; its capacity five pints. It extends almost 

 transversely across the upper (in Man) part of the abdomen 

 from the left toward the right side, the pylorus entering the 

 region called 'right hypochondrium :' as the stomach becomes 

 distended, it gently rotates the great curvature forward. The 

 outer or ' serous ' coat is continued from the lesser curvature 

 and contributes with the end of the gullet and beginning of 

 the gut to suspend or attach the bag : from the curve d, 

 f, c, the serous coat extends down to form the ' great omen- 

 turn,' fig. 388 : thus provision is made for the digestive cavity 

 to encroach upon the interspace of the two serous layers during 



333 



o-< >ui, Human stomacli, inverted. CXLVIII". 



expansion. The muscular coat of the stomach is in three layers 

 which, from the general course of the fibres, are termed i lon- 

 gitudinal,' ' transverse,' and ' oblique : ' the latter or innermost 

 layer, fig. 333, //, d, f, c, is partial : the other two are com- 

 plete. The longitudinal layer, like that of the gullet, is the 

 outermost; and the fibres radiate from the cardia, becoming 

 thinner as they diverge, spreading and decussating with the other 

 fibres, and hardly traceable continuously to the pylorus, save 

 along the lesser curvature. The transverse fibres, which lie 

 immediately beneath the longitudinal, form a thicker and more 

 uniform stratum: in the inverted stomach, from which the 

 mucous membrane has been dissected, in fig. 333, they are the 

 innermost at the pyloric end, c, e, b: at the cardiac end they are 

 lined by the layer of ' oblique ' fibres. The transverse layer 

 increases in thickness to the pylorus, fig. 334, the circular fibres 

 or sphincter occupying the valvular fold of the mucous membrane, 



F F 2 



