20 PHYSIOLOGY AND HEALTH. 



and these are daily stretched to such an extent as would be 

 very painful, and even injurious, to more temperate eaters. 



FIG. VI. Inside and Coats of the Stomach. 



a, Mucous coat, 

 6, Its edge. 



c, Edge of the mus- 

 cular coat. 



d, Peritoneal coat. 



e, (Esophagus. 

 /, Its opening. 



Pyloric orifice. 

 h t Right end. 

 t, Left end. 



27. The texture of the stomach is fleshy, and very soft and 

 flexible. Its thickness varies according to the quantity of its 

 contents. It is thinner when it is expanded and its sides are 

 stretched than when it is contracted and its sides are 

 shrunken. It is composed of three coats, or layers. The 

 outer or peritoneal coat (Fig. VI. d) is a part of that covering, 

 which wraps about all the contents of the abdomen, and 

 forms the outer coat of the whole alimentary canal, and lines 

 the walls of this cavity. It is very tough and strong, and 

 being attached to the back-bone and the sides of the abdo- 

 men, it holds with sufficient firmness all the inner organs, 

 which it covers, and sustains them in their places ; and yet 

 it is attached in such a manner as to allow the expansions 

 and motions of the stomach and of the canal. 



28. The middle is the muscular coat, (Fig. VI. c.) It has two 

 layers of fleshy fibres, or strings, which run crosswise of each 

 other at right angles. One of these layers runs lengthwise 

 from one end of the stomach to the other. The other layer 

 surrounds the sack ; and winding in successive circles from 

 end to end of the organ, it covers the whole as a similar layer 

 of fibres covers the gullet. This muscular coat has a cor* 



