MOVEMENTS OF THE STOMACH. 289 



they were mistaken, as the nature of the case was not recog- 

 nized during life. 1 !Nb argument, therefore, seems necessary 

 to show that during digestion, the stomach is the seat of 

 tolerably active movements. 



A peculiarity in the movements of the stomach, which 

 has been repeatedly observed in the lower animals, partic- 

 ularly dogs and cats, and in certain cases has been con- 

 firmed in the human subject, is that at about the junction of 

 the cardiac two-thirds with the pyloric third, there is fre- 

 quently a transverse band of iibres so firmly contracted as to 

 divide the cavity into two almost distinct compartments. 

 It has also been noted that the contractions in the cardiac 

 division are much less vigorous than near the pylorus ; the 

 stomach seeming simply to adapt itself to the food by a 

 gentle pressure as it remains in the great pouch, while in the 

 pyloric portion, divided off as it is by the hour-glass con- 

 traction above-mentioned, the movements are more frequent, 

 vigorous, and expulsive. We must again refer, however, to 

 the observations of Beaumont for the only accurate descrip- 

 tion of the movements of the stomach, as they take place 

 during digestion in the human subject. 



The experiments of Beaumont were generally made with 

 the subject lying on the right side, and the movements of the 

 stomach were observed by following with the eye a particular 

 morsel of food as it passed along, or by introducing the bulb 

 of a thermometer into the organ, and allowing it to move with 

 the alimentary mass. It was invariably found that the move- 

 ments of the thermometer-bulb were the same as those ob- 

 served by identifying and following a particular portion of 

 food. As the alimentary bolus enters by the cardiac opening, 

 it turns to the left, descends into the great pouch, and follows 

 the greater curvature to the pyloric end. It then returns to 

 the cardiac orifice by the lesser curvature, and takes again 

 the same course as before. "While these revolutions, so to 



1 TODD AND BOWMAN, TJie Physiological Anatomy cpid Physiology of Man, 

 Philadelphia, 1857, p. 550. 

 19 



