38 THE GASTRIC LIQUOR. 



the mucus above mentioned, a large quantity of a different 

 liquor, the proper Gastric Juice, or fluid of the stomach, is 

 effused from its surface. It has been supposed that this fluid is 

 furnished by the small glandular bodies believed to exist 

 between the coats of this organ ; but, admitting the existence of 

 these glands, they are not sufficiently numerous to produce so 

 much of it as is found, and it is therefore probable that this 

 fluid is discharged from the orifices of exhalent vessels in the 

 internal surface. 



Much information respecting the gastric liquor has been 

 obtained within a few years past by the researches of physio- 

 logists, and they are generally agreed that it is the principal 

 agent in the effects produced by the stomach upon alimentary 

 substances.* 



As the muscular coat of the stomach frequently varies its 

 dimensions, the villous and nervous coats, which have no such 

 power of contraction, cannot exactly fit it. They there- 

 fore generally appear larger, and of course are thrown into folds 

 or rugae. These folds are commonly in a longitudinal direction ; 

 but at the orifices of the stomach they are arranged in a radi- 

 ated manner, and sometimes they are observed in a transverse 



conditions of the membrane, these follicles sometimes appear round, sometimes 

 ovular, globular or flattenedf and are believed to be analogous in structure and 

 function, to the blennogenous apparatus of Breschet, which assists to form the 

 cuticle of the skin. A cuticle proper does not extend farther down the alimen- 

 tary canal than the cardiac orifice of the stomach, at which place it terminates, 

 as Chaussier first observed, in a crescentic margin. A delicate epithelial facing 

 is however continued over the mucous membrane, throughout the whole length 

 of the tube. p. 



* On this subject, the student may consult with advantage 



M. Reamur. In the Memoires of the Academy of Sciences for 1752. 



John Hunter. London Philosophical Transactions for 1772 ; and also his 

 observations on the Animal Economy, 1786. 



Dr. Edward Stevens. Inaugural Thesis de Alimentorum Concoctione, Edin- 

 burg, 1777. 



The Abbe Spalanzani. Dissertations relative to Natural History, &c. The 

 first volume of the English translation contains the author's dissertations on 

 digestion, and also the first paper of Mr. Hunter, and the Thesis of Dr. Stevens, 

 as well as an account of the experiments of Mr. Gosse of Geneva. 



In addition to these, there are several interesting essays in the French, Ger- 

 man, and Italian languages, a compilation of which is to be found in Johnson's 

 "History of the Progress and Present State of Animal Chemistry." See vol. 

 i. p. 158. 



