MUSCULAR COAT OF THE STOMACH. 35 



that the muscular fibres, blood-vessels, (fee, appear through it. 

 If it is carefully dissected from the muscular coat, it appears 

 somewhat flocculent on that surface which adhered to the 

 muscular fibres. It seems to be most abundantly furnished 

 with serous vessels ; but it has been asserted by Mascagni and 

 Soemmering, that a large proportion of its texture consists of 

 absorbent vessels. The cellular substance which connects this 

 to the muscular coat, appears no way different from ordinary 

 cellular membrane. 



The Muscular Coat of the stomach has been described very 

 differently by respectable anatomists ; some considering it as 

 forming three strata or fibres, and others but two. If the 

 stomach and a portion of the oesophagus attached to it be 

 moderately distended with air, and the external coat carefully 

 dissected away, many longitudinal fibres will appear on 

 every part of it, that evidently proceed from the oesophagus : 

 these fibres are particularly numerous and strong on the lesser 

 curvature of the stomach. — Beside the longitudinal fibres, 

 there are many that have a circular direction, and these are 

 particularly numerous towards the small extremity ; but it has 

 been doubted whether there are any fibres in the muscular 

 coat of the stomach that go directly round it. The whole sur- 

 face of the stomach, when the peritoneal coat is removed, 

 appears at first view to be uniformly covered by muscular 

 fibres ; but upon close examination, there are interstices per- 

 ceived, which are occupied with firm cellular membrane. 



— The longitudinal or superficial muscular fibres of the stom- 

 ach, many of which can be traced from the oesophagus over the 

 cardiac orifice of the stomach, are grouped together so as to form 

 a thicker and stronger layer along the lesser curvature of the 

 stomach ; many of these fibres, if traced with care, will be found 

 continuous with the longitudinal fibres of the duodenum, while 

 others are terminated by insertion in the cellular coat of the 

 stomach near the pylorus. The circular fibres constitute the 

 sphincter muscle of the pylorus, by being thickened into a 

 muscular band at the line of separation between the stomach 

 and duodenum. There is another order of fibres called the 



