ANATOMICAL SOCIETY OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. Ixi 



with the pHca triangularis (His), well developed, and separated from 

 the tonsil, were also exhibited. 



(15) Professor Birmingham also read a paper on some j^oints 

 in the Anatomy of the Digestive System, which will be published 

 in the October number of the Journal of Anatomy and Physio- 

 logy. The paper dealt especially with the form and position of 

 the stomach and rectum. The long axis of the stomach, traced 

 from the summit of the fundus (not from the cardia), was described 

 as being directed almost horizontally forwards and to the right in 

 the male when the stomach is empty ; in the female, on the con- 

 trary, as a result of tight-lacing, the long axis is often nearly verti- 

 cal. Three stages were recognised in the process of distension, at the 

 completion of which the stomach assumes an oblique position, its long 

 axis forming an angle of about 45 degrees with both the horizontal 

 and sagittal planes. The view was advanced that the stomach, and 

 probably all other hollow viscera with muscular wall, were, when 

 empty, contracted, not collapsed, their cavities following and corre- 

 sponding to the amount of their contents. The large, flat-walled, and 

 collapsed empty stomach, commonly described, probably does not 

 exist. The pylorus, too, has never been found patent or relaxed in a 

 body hardened by the formalin method, so far as the author was 

 aware, and the opening of the pylorus he considers to be an active, 

 not a passive process. Further, the pylorus is a canal of nearly an 

 inch in length, rather than an abrupt constriction. 



The rectum in all animals, when viewed from the ventral aspect, is 

 practically straight. In man it presents a series of lateral foldings or 

 flexures, usually three in number ; and the valves of Houston are the 

 expressions of these lateral inflections as seen from the interior of the 

 bowel. These lateral foldings^ according to the author, are an adapta- 

 tion to the erect attitude, the object of which is to relieve the anal 

 sphincters from the pressure of the rectal contents. The lateral fold- 

 ings break up the rectal contents into three segments, each more or 

 less completely supported by a valve of Houston. The view was ex- 

 pressed that while the levator ani and external sphincter are the true 

 sphincters of the bowel, the internal sphincter is continuous with the 

 circular muscular fibres of the intestine in action as well as in struc- 

 ture, its chief use being to empty the anal canal. 



(16) Dr Peter Thompson gave a lantern demonstration of the 

 Pelvic FascicK and their relationship to the Levator Aid. A full 

 account of this demonstration will be found in the Journal of 

 Anatomy and Physiology, January 1901. 



(17) Dr Charles J. Pattex gave a lantern demonstration on the 

 form of the Heart in Man and otlier Mammalia. This communica- 

 tion will be published in the Journal of Anatomy and Physiology for 

 October 1900. 



