DIGESTION AND ABSOEPTION IN THE STOMACH 8 1 



It ought to be added that the Kronecker-Meltzer theory of 

 deglutition assails with considerable plausibility the mech- 

 anism of deglutition as above given. In a word, this theory holds 

 that when the bolus of food rests upon the dorsum of the tongue, 

 and the tip of that organ prevents, by its apposition to the hard 

 palate, the escape of the food forward, the mylohyoids contract 

 with great force, compress the food, and it escapes by the route 

 of least resistance, which is backward. It is thus shot into the 

 esophagus, and the contraction of the pharyngeal muscles only 

 supplements that of the mylohyoids. 



Digestion and Absorption in the Stomach. 



Anatomy. The stomach is situated beneath the diaphragm 

 in the upper part of the abdominal cavity, and is moored by the 

 esophagus and folds of the peritoneum. Its general shape has 

 been compared to that of the bagpipe. Its large, or fundic, end 

 is to the left; its small, or pyloric, to the right. By far the 

 greater part of the organ is to the left of the median line. A very 

 considerable portion is to the left of the esophageal opening. 

 Except when distended, its anterior and posterior walls hang in 

 an approximately vertical direction, and are usually in contact 

 by their mucous surfaces. Its greatest length when moderately 

 distended is about fourteen inches, its transverse diameter about 

 five inches, and its capacity about five pints. At the point 

 where the anterior and posterior walls meet inferiorly, the great 

 omentum (the peritoneum from the two walls) is given off. This 

 is the greater curvature and has the gastro-epiploica-dextra 

 and the gastro-epiploica-sinistra arteries running along it between 

 the two folds of the omentum. Where the anterior and posterior 

 walls meet superiorly, the stomach is joined by the lesser 

 omentum, the two layers of which are continued in front and 

 behind as the serous covering of the stomach. This is the 

 lesser curvature, and has the gastric and pyloric branch of 

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