40 HUMAN PHYSIOLOGY 



deglutition, as the action is scientifically termed. 

 The tip of the tongue is next placed to the roof of 

 the mouth and the food-mass tilted backwards to be 

 received and grasped by the upper part of the throat 

 known as the pharynx. This is a muscular bag 

 which is drawn up to meet the food, the hinder 

 nostrils at the same time being closed to prevent the 

 escape of any fluid from the channel of the nose. 

 The food passing still backwards, reaches the Cupper 

 part of the windpipe where we find the entrance to 

 that tube or passage-way to the lungs guarded by a 

 lid-like structure known as the epiglottis. This 

 structure, when swallowing is naturally performed, 

 closes over the windpipe entrance, and the food 

 therefore passes over and behind the windpipe into 

 the upper part of the gullet. The gullet itself is a 

 muscular tube whose walls are closely approximated 

 save during the passage of food to the stomach. 

 Food does not pass to the stomach by its own 

 weight as is often popularly supposed, but is rather 

 squeezed or pressed down into the stomach by the 

 contraction of the muscles of the gullet which act in 

 wave-like fashion, ultimately forcing food through 

 the front opening of the stomach, called the cardia, 

 into that organ. Choking, we may perceive, will be 

 caused by any action (such as speaking or coughing) 

 which interferes during the process of swallowing 

 with the perfect closure of the epiglottis protecting 

 the entrance to the windpipe. 



THE STOMACH. In man, the stomach (Fig. 10) is 

 a pear-shaped expansion of the digestive tube, the 

 large end of the pear lying to the left side of the body. 

 From the narrow end of the pear-shaped bag the 

 bowel is given off, this junction between the stomach 

 and the bowels being found on the right side of the 



