THE FORM OF THE HUMAN STOMACH 485 



times the constriction is slightly to the cardiac side of the elbow, 

 as shown in figure 3. 



The angle which separates the two parts of the stomach is 

 obscure in the older drawings in which the organ is almost hori- 

 zontally placed. According to Bichat (1802) "when the stomach 

 is filled its obliquity increases considerably; often it appears almost 

 perpendicular, so that the right extremity .... is strongly 

 recurved upward, and forms a very acute angle with the body of 

 the organ." Luschka (1869) similarly found that the greater 

 part of the stomach, as a rule, has a precisely vertical position, 

 but that the pars pylorica is directed almost transversely. Both 

 of these forms, with vertical body and transverse or ascending 

 pars pylorica, will be seen in the embryos to be examined. 



The pars pylorica and its subdivisions having been described, 

 the pars cardiaca may next be examined. It is divided into the 

 'saccus caecus,' now called the 'fundus;' the 'corpus' or body; 

 and the gastric canal. The term fundus was appropriately applied 

 by Vesalius to the lower part of the stomach, which in the trans- 

 verse position of the organ, extends well toward the pyloric region. 

 It was so used by Willis (1674) ; and by Cowper (1737), as seen in 

 figure 2. Caldani (1804) makes fundus synonymous with greater 

 curvature. The bulging left or upper extremity of the stomach 

 received the special name 'saccus caecus' (Haller, 1764; Caldani, 

 1804). But Meckel (1820) considered fundus and saccus caecus 

 as synonyms, and preferred fundus; Huschke (1844) likewise 

 made them synonymous, but adopted saccus caecus, which Henle 

 used in 1866. Nevertheless, fundus has become adopted for the 

 highest part of the stomach and saccus caecus has been rejected. 

 The fundus lies at the left of the cardia, being separated from the 

 oesophagus by a notch, the 'incisura cardiaca' of His (1903). 

 Below, as described by Cloquet, the fundus terminates almost 

 imperceptibly in the greater curvature. It is therefore bounded 

 arbitrarily by a horizontal plane at the level of the inferior border 

 of the cardia (Jonnesco), or by a line prolonging the axis of the 

 abdominal part of the oesophagus (Keith and Jones, 1902). 



According to Keith and Jones the fundus arises in human em- 

 bryos as a localized outgrowth or diverticulum of the stomach, 



