318 ANATOMY IN A NUTSHELL. 



LESSON XC. 



The stomach ( Plate CXLYI) is the most dilated and most distensible part of 

 the alimentary canal. It occupies parts of the left hypochondriac and epigas- 

 tric regions of the abdomen, immediately within the abdominal walls below the 

 diaphragm and partly under the liver to the right of the spleen and above the 

 transverse colon. In form it is irregularly conoidal and curved upon itself. 

 When moderately distended it is about twelve inches long and four inches wide; 

 it weighs three or four ounces. The size, shape, and hence anatomical rela- 

 tion.^, differ greatly in different states of distension. It is somewhat like a pear 

 with the large end up and the small end bent side wise to the right. The fundus 

 or splenic end is connected to the spleen by the gastro-splenic omentum. We 

 niiuht mention that an omentum is a special mesentery connecting the stomach 

 with the liver, spleen, and colon respectively. The one that connects it to the 

 spleen is called gastro-splenic omentum. The one that connects it to the liver 

 is called the gastro-hepatic omentum, and the one to the colon is called the 

 gastro-colic omentum. The pylorus or lesser end lies near the cartilage of the 

 eighth rib, in contact with the under surface of the liver. The stomach has two 

 curves, a greater and a lesser. The greater is convex and is connected to the 

 colon by the gastro-colic omentum. The lesser one is concave and is connected 

 to the liver by the gastro-hepatic omentum, and to the Diaphragm by the gas- 

 trophrenic ligament. The oesophageal or cardiac orifice is situated between 

 the fundus and the lesser curvature. 



The pyloric (janitor) is situated at the extreme right and is more anterior 

 in position than the cardiac orifice. The stomach has four tunics, serous, mus- 

 cular, areolar or submucous, and mucous. The serous coat (peritoneum) en- 

 closes the stomach between two layers, derived from the lesser omentum. Tha 

 lesser omentum, omentum minimus, or gastro-hepatic is a single fold (two 

 layers) of peritoneum, extending between the transverse fissure of the liver and 

 the lessee curvature of the stomach. It might be well to explain the greater 

 omentum, omentum magnus or gastro-colic omentum also called epiploon, It 

 is the largest of all peritoneal duplications, and consists of four layers of peri- 

 toneum attached to the greater curvature of the stomach and to the transverse 

 colon, whence it is looped down freely upon the intestines, forming a great flap 

 or apron. The muscular coat has two distinct layers — an outer, longitudinal, 

 and an inner, circular. Besides these two distinct layers some oblique fasci- 

 culi are found internal to the circular. The areolar, submucous, also called 

 vascular, is loose, and its meshes are largely occupied with the vessels and nerves 

 going to and from the coats between which it lies. The mucous coat is thrown 

 into irregular Longitudinal folds called rugae. The rugse invade the mucous 

 and submucous coats. 



There are two kinds of glands in the stomach, the cardiac or proper gastric 

 glands also called peptic (digest), and the pyloric glands 



The aerve supply to the stomach is the right and left pneumogastric and 

 branches from the solar plexus of sympathetic nerves. 



The blood supply to stomach (Plate CXLVIII) is from the coeliac axis. 



