DIGESTION. 



of-S loops, the fibres intersecting very obliquely. The next, and conse- 

 quently deepest set cf fibres, are the oblique, continuous with the circular 

 muscular fibres of the oesophagus, and having the same double-looped 

 arrangement that prevails in the preceding layer : they are comparatively 

 few in number, and are placed only at 

 the cardiac orifice and portion of the 

 stomach, over both surfaces of which 

 they are spread, some passing ob- 

 liquely from left to right, others from 

 right to left, around the cardiac ori- 

 fice, to which, by their interlacing, 

 they form a kind of sphincter, con- 

 tinuous with that around the lower 

 end of the oesophagus. The mus- 

 cular fibres of the stomach and of the 

 intestinal canal are unstriated, being 

 composed of elongated, spindle-shaped 

 fibre-cells. 



(3) and (4) The mucous membrane 

 of the stomach, which rests upon a 

 layer of loose cellular membrane, or 

 submucous tissue, is smooth, level, 

 soft, and velvety; of a pale pink color 

 during life, and in the contracted 

 state thrown into numerous, chiefly 

 longitudinal, folds or rugae, which 

 disappear when the organ is dis- 

 tended. 



The basis of the mucous mem- 

 brane is a fine connective tissue, which 

 approaches closely in structure to 

 adenoid tissue ; this tissue supports 

 the tubular glands of which the su- 

 perficial and chief part of the mucous 

 membrane is composed, and passing 

 up between them assists in binding 

 them together. Here and there are 

 to be found in this coat, immedi- 

 ately underneath the glands, masses of 

 adenoid tissue sufficiently marked 

 to be termed by some lymphoid follicles. The glands are separated from 

 the rest of the mucous membrane by a very fine homogeneous basement 

 membrane. 



At the deepest part of the mucous membrane are two layers (circular 



FIG. 185. From a vertical section through 

 the mucous membrane of the cardiac end of 

 stomach. Two peptic glands are shown 

 with a duct common to both, one gland only 

 in part, a, duct with columnar epithelium 

 becoming shorter as the cells are traced 

 downward; n, neck of gland tubes, with 

 central and parietal or so-called peptic cells; 

 6, fundus with curved caecal extremity 

 the parietal cells are not so numerous here. 

 X 400. (Klein and Noble Smith.) 



