SOME POINTS IN THE ANATOMY OF THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM. 41 



but preserving in its whole length more or less of an irregularly 

 rounded or cylindrical form. In this, the empty condition, it is 

 much bent on itself, particularly at the junction of the cardiac 

 and pyloric portions, where the lesser curvature is generally 

 reduced to a sharp angle. The long axis of the organ (tracing 

 it from the summit of the fundus) is in the cardiac portion, 

 directed from behind forwards and to the right, with a slight 

 inclination downwards ; then it bends almost at a right angle, 

 and in the pyloric portion runs to the right towards the pylorus. 

 Even in the empty condition the cardiac portion retains, as a 

 rule, an appearance of rotundity, and rarely or never assumes a 

 completely collapsed and flattened form ; whilst the pyloric 

 portion, contracting, assumes a narrow cylindrical shape, and 

 resembles in size and general appearance a bit of thick-walled 

 small intestine. 



It would appear that the collapsed, flat-walled, and flaccid bag, 

 usually pictured as the empty stomach, does not represent its 

 true condition, but is rather the result of post-mortem softening, 

 relaxation, and pressure. The stomach, like the bladder, and 

 like other hollow viscera with muscular walls, is an extensile 

 organ, capable of considerable expansion, and also of contraction 

 in virtue of the properties of its muscular coat. When food 

 enters its cavity it expands, the expansion being proportionate 

 to the amount of food that enters ; when the food passes away 

 or is absorbed, it contracts until its cavity is reduced to little 

 more than a stellate lumen, containing perhaps some mucous 

 gastric juice or gas. In other words, the stomach is not an 

 inert bag, hanging down when empty like a flapping sail, with 

 its walls in contact, but an active, living organ, capable of 

 expansion and contraction, which adapts the size of its cavity 

 to the amount of its contents. 



Whilst all the other coats of the stomach are highly extensile, 

 the mucous coat is so only to a slight degree ; this coat must 

 therefore be sufficient in amount to surround the cavity when 

 largest ; hence, when the stomach is empty and the other coats 

 contracted round the diminished lumen, the inelastic mucous 

 coat is thrown into folds or rugse, which project into and 

 practically fill the cavity of the organ, and give to it, even in the 

 empty state, a rounded or cylindrical form. 



