132 REPORT — 1855. 



muscles of the body are affected by the local application of electrical or galvanic 

 currents over their surface. These experiments were undertaken chiefly with the 

 view of ascertaining the accuracy of the statements contained in the recent work of 

 M. Duchenne of Boulogne (de I'electrisation localisee, Paris, 1855), viz. that the 

 local application of electricity shows that the muscles or parts of them are excited to 

 contraction by the stimulus directly, and not through the intervention of theirnerves. 

 Dr. Remak's experiments have led him to a different conclusion, viz. that the 

 contraction of muscles produced by the application of the electric conductors iu 

 their vicinity is always the more powerful the nearer one of these conductors is 

 brought to the place at which the principal nerve enters the muscle ; and that the 

 more limited contractions produced by the application of the conductors on the skin 

 over the surface of subcutaneous muscles are not less the result of the distributed 

 twigs of nerves in the muscular fibres. It is also an interesting result of these expe- 

 riments, that the most efficient application of the stimulus is also the least painful, 

 by directing the galvanic current towards the muscle, and carrying it away from the 

 sensitive nerves which may be placed in the vicinity. 



On the Antrum Pylori in Man and Animals. 

 By Professor Retzius, Stockholm. 



The author remarked that the name of Antrum pylori was first used by Willis in 

 his work, " Pharmaceutices rationalis, sive diatriba de raedicamentorum opera- 

 tionibus," &c. Few after him have appreciated the true form and importance of 

 this part, except Cruveilhier. Professor Retzius has found three different forms of 

 this part in man ; he calls the one (described by Cruveilhier) the short form, the 

 other (mentioned by Willis) the long, and the third he calls the conical form. In 

 the first form the part has two ampullae on the upper side, and one, sometimes two, 

 on the lower, besides the great pyloric curvature (Coude de I'estomac of Cru- 

 veilhier). The two ampullse nearest the pylorus are the most constant, and form a 

 proper division of the whole antrum part. This has commonly a darker colour than 

 the rest. In the second form, which Professor Retzius has often found in middle- 

 aged females who had lived sparingly, the antrum is much elongated, tubular, and 

 sigmoid, and is separated from the rest of the stomach as a quite distinct part, so 

 as sometimes to have been mistaken for a part of the duodenum. The ampullae are 

 in this form not so much elongated, and not distinct, as in the other two ; and the 

 constrictions are very slight, and lengthened out. In the third form the ampullae 

 are small, less limited, and the whole part short, and nearly in the form of a trun- 

 cated cone. In this form the "Coude de I'estomac" is very prominent, and the 

 opposite plica in the lesser curvature narrow. 



In all these forms, and most in the first, two proper bands of longitudinal fibres, 

 partly muscular, partly of white and yellow fibrous tissue, run along both the ante- 

 rior and posterior walls of the stomach. These bands are mentioned by several of 

 the older anatomists as the bands or ligaments of the pylorus. As in the colon, 

 these longitudinal bands are shorter than the tube, which is somewhat contracted 

 by them ; and by this shortening, as in the colon, folds and haustra are formed, 

 which have been called by Cruveilhier " les ampoules." 



The peculiarities of the mucous membrane in the pyloric part of the stomach 

 were already observed by Sir Everard Home. The muscular coat is very strong, 

 principally formed by a thick layer of circular fibres, whose thickest part in the 

 length of an inch occupies the space nearest the pylorus, corresponding to the two 

 last ampullcB. In many specimens Professor Retzius has found the before-men- 

 tioned white tissue covering what were formerly called the ligamenta pylorica, 

 shining and white like tendons. He considers them as in a rudimentary degree 

 corresponding with the well-known tendons in the muscular stomach of the Croco- 

 dile and Birds. Professor Retzius has found the same tendon on the pyloric part 

 of the stomach of dogs, and peculiarly developed in the Arctic Bear. 



In the stomach of the Arctic Hare this tendon is nearly quadrangular. The 

 antrum pylori in several carnivora is an elongated and narrow tubular, sometimes 

 conical part of the stomach. In the Common Seal {Phoca annellata, Nils.), the 

 antrum pylori is a long, oval, and narrow cavity, folded back on the rest of the 



