DIGESTIYK ORGANS AND THEIR ANATOMY. 



279 



tion of food. The shape of the stomach is at once evident 

 from the accompanying diagram. It lies mainly to the left 

 side of the body, being displaced from a median position 

 by the large liver which occupies the corresponding right 

 position. The portion next to the oesophagus is the cardiac 

 portion, that portion connected with the intestine, the py- 

 loric portion. The upper curvature is spoken of as the small 



Fig. 109. THE HUMAN STOMACH. 



A, cardiac end; c, fundus; P, sphincter muscle, pyloric end; lines indicate longitudi- 

 nal muscle fibres. 



curvature, the lower as the large curvature. The big sac- 

 like dilatation formed by the large curvature, called the fun- 

 dus of the stomach, varies greatly in size with the varying 

 amount of food taken. In a not-too-distended stomach the 

 dimensions are about nine or ten inches in its long diam- 

 eter, and from five to seven inches in its short diameter. 

 The outer or serous coat is a part of the peritoneum which 

 lines the abdominal cavity, and which is folded around the 

 stomach as the mesentery. At the front of the stomach, 

 however, this fold is extended downwards over the intes- 

 tines as a large covering or apron, and is called the great 

 amentum. This omentum frequently becomes the seat of 

 fatty deposition, and no doubt materially serves to protect 

 the underlying viscera from changes of temperature. 



The muscular coat is a little modified from the typical 

 arrangement, there being three instead of two parts. The 



