8 PHYSIOLOGY OF ALIMENTATION. 



followed in its passage through the alimentary tract by plac- 

 ing a fluoroscopic screen over the animal. 



The only possible sources of error which might have crept 

 into these observations of CANNON and Roux and BATHA- 

 ZARD are therefore those connected with tying the animal^ 

 while making observations and the feeding of bism 

 nitrate with the food. That the first playsfto role in care- 

 fully conducted experiments is indicated by the fact that 

 observations carried out on sleeping animals agree per- 

 fectly with those carried out on waking ones. So far as the 

 bismuth subnitrate is concerned the objection will be made 

 that it inhibits the intestinal movements, as it is used for 

 this purpose in the treatment of diarrhoeas. But care must 

 be taken in applying what holds for an inflamed gastro- 

 intestinal tract to a healthy one, in which the action of the 

 bismuth subnitrate is at its worst but slight. 



We shall follow first of all CANNON'S l description of the 

 movements of the stomach in the cat. 



The form of the active stomach a few minutes after a 

 meal of 15 grams of milk and bread mixed with 3 to 5 grams 

 of bismuth subnitrate is shown in Fig. 1. For convenience 

 in description the stomach may be divided into two parts. 

 The larger cardiac part lies to the animal's left of the line 

 through wx. The smaller pyloric part lies to the right of 

 this line and consists of two subdivisions, the antrum to 

 the animal's right of a line passing through yz, and a pre- 

 antral part to the left of this line and extending to the line 



1 CANNON: American Journal of Physiology, 1898, 1, p. 359. See also 

 Roux and BATHAZARD: Comptes rendus de la soc. de biologic, 1897, 

 IV, p. 785; Archives de Physiologic, 1898, X, p. 85. A review of the 

 older literature on the movements of the stomach may be found in 

 CANNON'S paper. See also BEAUMONT: Physiology of Digestion, Bur- 

 lington, 1847, p. 104; HOFMEISTER and SCHUTZ: Archiv f. exper. Patho- 

 logic und Pharmakologie, 1885, XX, p. 1; ROSSBACH: Deutsches 

 Archiv f. klin. Medizin, 1890, XL VI, p. 296; HIRSCH: Centralblatt f. 

 klin. Medizin, 1892, XIII, p. 994. 



