DIGESTION AND ABSORPTION IN THE STOMACH 8l 



best examples of finely coordinated muscular action to be 

 found. The afferent fibers concerned are from the 5th, gth, 

 and loth, and the superior laryngeal branch of the last. The 

 efferent fibers are from the 5th, 7th, gth, loth, and I2th. 

 The center for the reflex is supposed to be far forward in 

 the medulla. 



It ought to be added that the Kronecker-Meltzer theory 

 of deglutition assails with considerable plausibility the me- 

 chanism of deglutition as above given. In a word, this the- 

 ory holds that when the bolus of food rests upon the dor- 

 sum 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 back- 

 ward. It is thus shot into the esophagus, and the contraction 

 of the pharyngeal muscles only supplements that of the my- 

 lohyoids. 



Digestion and Absorption in the Stomach. 



Anatomy. The istomach is situated beneath the dia- 

 phragm 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 ver- 

 tical 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 



6 



