72 NUTRITIONAL PHYSIOLOGY 



The Fundus. An important service of the stomach is 

 to store food in relatively large quantities at mealtimes 

 and to deliver it gradually to the intestine. A person who 

 has been deprived of the stomach, or of most of it, by sur- 

 gery is made aware of this when he finds it impossible to 

 eat "a square meal," and is compelled to take small por- 

 tions of food at short intervals. He is then serving his 

 intestines somewhat as they are normally treated by the 

 stomach. Storage is not the sole function of the stomach, 

 but we do well to emphasize it. The fundus accommodates 

 itself to its contents by tone changes, relaxing when food 

 is being swallowed and afterward exerting a steady, mod- 

 erate pressure which insures the filling of the antrum after 

 every discharge at the pylorus. A lack of this tonic re- 

 action may be a cause of serious disorders. 



The earlier writers often claimed that there is a definite 

 and regular overturning of the contents of the fundus. 

 In the light of more recent observations this does not seem 

 to be usual. A German investigator fed to a rat three 

 courses of food of contrasted colors. The animal was then 

 killed and frozen. A section made through the hardened 

 mass within the stomach showed distinct stratification. 

 The food first taken was in the antrum and the lower part 

 of the fundus, the second instalment was above the first, 

 and the third was just under the cardia. It seems hardly 

 probable that entirely liquid food could remain thus strati- 

 fied when one considers the extent to which the stomach is 

 subjected to the influence of bodily movements. 



-Ray Studies of the Stomach. While much can be 

 learned of the behavior of the stomach through experi- 

 ments involving its exposure by surgical procedures, the 

 ideal method is clearly one which leaves the animal in its 

 normal condition. Such a method became available when 

 the x-ray was first turned to account to observe visceral 

 movements. The image of any part of the body projected 

 by means of the x-ray shows the bones in clear contrast 

 with the softer parts, but scarcely outlines the organs. If, 

 however, any harmless substance opaque to the x-ray is 



