SOME POINTS IX THE ANATOMY OF THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM. 45 



by the visceral surface of the left lobe of the liver, and in the 

 rest of its extent by the left cupola of the diaphragm, which 

 arches gradually downwards behind and on the left to meet 

 the floor. 



The floor, or stomach bed, is a distinct sloping shelf; not a 

 mere indiscriminate collection of underlying viscera, but a 

 definite bed, constant in its formation, on which the under 

 surface of the stomach rests, and by which the organ is sup- 

 ported. The bed is formed behind by the top of the left kidney 

 (with its suprarenal capsule) and the gastric surface of the 

 spleen, both of which taken together form a fairly regular 

 concave surface, sloping backwards and upwards to meet the 

 roof, and thus completing the posterior part of the chamber 

 which receives the fundus of the stomach. In front of the 

 spleen and kidney the bed is formed, first, by the wide upper 

 surface of the pancreas, then by the transverse mesocolon 

 sloping forwards and slightly downwards from the anterior 

 edge of the pancreas to the colon, which latter completes the 

 floor anteriorly. This portion of the transverse mesocolon on 

 which the stomach rests is stretched over and buoyed up by a 

 large mass of small intestine (jejunum), which invariably will 

 be found packed in beneath the mesocolon on the front of the 

 left kidney when the transverse colon is turned up. 



Finally, the anterior wall of the stomach chamber is formed 

 by the abdominal wall between the ribs on the left and the 

 liver on the right side. 



Behind, as already indicated, the chamber is completed 

 by the meeting of the floor and roof, but the line along 

 which the two meet is variable; for sometimes the spleen 

 extends up for but a little way at the back of the chamber, 

 whilst in other cases it constitutes the greater part of its 

 posterior boundary, and forms a cuplike surface on which the 

 inferior aspect of the fundus of the stomach rests. 



This chamber, as already mentioned, is completely filled by 

 the stomach when the organ is distended. When, on the other 

 hand, the stomach is empty and contracted, it still rests on the 

 floor or stomach bed, but occupies only the lower portion of 

 the chamber, whilst the rest of this space is filled by the 

 transverse colon, which turns gradually upwards as the stomach 



