COMPOSITION OF GASTRIC JUICE. 



155 



the c;mil extremities of the peptic glands, and a deeper layer with larger 

 meshes lying in the snbinucous areolar tissue, and separated from the first 

 by the thin stratum of uustriated muscular fibre, known as the muscular 



FIQ. 72. 



Appearance of the lining membrane of the Stomach, in an injected preparation: A, from the con- 

 vex surface of the ruga?; B, from the neighborhood of the pylorus, where the orifices of the gastric 

 follicles occupy the interspaces of the deepest portions of the vascular network. 



layer of the mucous membrane, through which many vessels connecting the 

 two strata pass. The nerves of the stomach are derived from the pneumo- 

 gastric, or rather from the branch of the spinal accessory that joins the 

 pueumogastric, and from the great sympathetic. They are divided into two 

 layers ; one of which forms a plexus in the submucous tissue ( Meissner's 

 plexus \ whilst the other lies amongst the fasciculi of the longitudinal muscu- 

 lar coat (Auerbach's plexus ; Fig. 71, A). In the former, ganglia are sorne- 

 .what sparingly distributed ; in the latter they are abundant. 1 



107. The nature and composition of the Gastric Juice which is secreted 

 and poured forth by the peptic follicles, have been the subject of much dis- 

 cussion among Chemists. AVhen obtained without admixture with saliva, 

 it is a clear, transparent, colorless or slightly yellow fluid with very little 

 viscidity. Microscopic examination indicates the persistence of a few of the 

 cells exuviated from the interior of the gastric follicles; but these for the 

 most part leave no other traces than their nuclei and a fine molecular mat- 

 ter arising from their disintegration. The proportion of solid matter which 

 the Gastric Juice contains, and the proportion which its chief organic con- 

 stituentthe pepsin bears to the inorganic residue, seem to vary greatly in 

 different animals. The following table shows the composition of the Gastric 

 Juice as obtained from the best analyses in man and some animals: 2 



1 For the mode of termination of the nerves in the stomach of the Frog, see K. 

 Trfltschel, Centralblatt, 1870, p. 115. 



2 v. Gorup-Besanez, Phys. Chem., 1862, p. 460. 



