THE ALIMENTARY CANAL AND ITS APPENDAGES 449 



over the opening of the larynx, is a plate of cartilage, the epiglottis, 

 e, which can be seen if the mouth is widely opened and the back 

 of the tongue pressed down by some such thing as the handle of a 

 spoon. During swallowing the epiglottis is pressed down like a lid 

 over the air-tube and helps to keep food or saliva from entering it. 

 In structure the pharynx consists essentially of a bag of connective 

 tissue lined by mucous membrane, and having muscles in its walls 

 which drive the food on. 



The Esophagus or Gullet is a tube commencing at the lower 

 termination of the pharynx and which, passing on through the 

 neck and chest, ends below the diaphragm by joining the stomach. 

 In the neck it lies close behind the windpipe. It consists of three 

 coats a mucous membrane within; next, a submucous coat of 

 areolar connective tissue: and, outside, a muscular coat made up 

 of two layers, an inner with transversely and an outer with longi- 

 tudinally arranged fibers. In and beneath its mucous membrane 

 are numerous small mucous glands whose ducts open into the 

 tube. 



The Stomach (Fig. 128) is a somewhat conical bag placed trans- 

 versely in the upper part of the abdominal cavity. Its larger end 

 is turned to the left and lies close beneath the diaphragm; opening 

 into its upper border, through the 

 cardiac orifice at a, is the gullet d. 

 The narrower right end is con- 

 tinuous at c with the small intes- 

 tine; the aperture between the 

 two is the pyloric orifice. The 

 pyloric end of the stomach lies 

 lower in the abdomen than the 

 cardiac, and is separated from 

 the diaphragm by the liver (see 

 Fig. 1). The concave border be- 

 tween the two orifices is known 

 as the small curvature, and the 

 convex, as the great curvature of 

 the stomach. From the latter hangs down a fold of peritoneum 

 known as the great amentum. It is spread over the rest of the 

 abdominal contents like an apron. After middle life much fat 

 frequently accumulates in the omentum, so that it is largely re- 



FIG. 128. The stomach, d, lower 

 end of the gullet; a, position of the 

 cardiac aperture; b, the fundus; c, the 

 pylorus; e, the commencement of 

 the small intestine; along a, b, c, the 

 great curvature; between the pylorus 

 and d, the lesser curvature. 



