226 OF DIGESTION. 



so that the pylorus lies more in a line with the duode- 

 num, while the cardia, on the contrary, is folded, as it 

 were, into an angle and closed. 



354. The stomach is composed of four principal 

 coats, separated by the intervention of three others 

 which are merely cellular. 



The external is common to nearly all the alimentary 

 canal, and continuous with the omentum, as we shall 

 presently mention. 



Within this, and united to it by cellular membrane, 

 lies the muscular coat, which is particularly worthy of 

 notice from being the seat of the extraordinary irrita- 

 bility (300) of the stomach. It consists of strata of 

 muscular fibres,* commonly divided into three orders, 

 one longitudinal and two circular (straight and oblique), 

 but running in so many directions that no exact ac- 

 count can be given of their course. 



The third is the chief membrane. It is usually termed 

 nervous, but improperly, as it consists of condensed 

 raucous tela, more lax on its surfaces, which are united 

 on the one hand with the muscular and on the other 

 with the internal villous coat. It is firm and strong, 

 and may be regarded as the basis of the stomach. 



The interior, (besides the epithelium investing the 

 whole alimentary canal) improperly called villous, is 

 extremely soft and in a manner spongy, porous, and 

 folded into innumerable rugae,f so that its surface is 

 more extensive than that of the other coats ; it exhi- 

 bits very small cells, J somewhat similar to those larger 



* Besides Haller, consult Rertin, M6m. ele I'Acad. lies Sc. de Paris. 1761. 



t Ruysch, The*. Anat. ii. Tab. v. fig. 2, 3, 4*. 



J Sec G. Fordyce, on thf Digestion ofFvori. p. 12, fi<), 191. 



