EEGIONAL DIVISIONS OF THE HUMAN STOMACH. 



61 



Posterior view of human stomach. 



of the well-known plicse fimbriatse. 



Flg ' 18 ' view of the human stomach, Fig. 



18, showing, according to Profess- 

 or Retzius, that the antram py- 

 lori of the older anatomists is re- 

 ally a special compartment of the 

 general cavity. The figure is 

 derived from numerous examin- 

 ations of the stomach in bodies 

 of middle-aged women, and, as 

 represented at c c, d d, indicates 

 the antrum pylori, a being the 

 oesophagus, b the cardiac orifice. 

 The antrum pylori is distinguish- 

 ed by greater thickness of its mus- 

 cular coat, more copious glandu- 

 lar development, and the presence 

 The commencement of the duode- 

 num also forms a special rounded cavity, which Professor Retzius pro- 

 poses to name antrum duodeni, characterized internally by the absence 

 of valvulae conniventes, and by the dense array of Brunner's glands be- 

 neath its mucous membrane. This part constitutes what has been called 

 the fourth stomach in the porpoise and some other cetaceans. The so- 

 called ligaments of the pylorus are connected with the formation of the 

 antrum pylori. 



It has been remarked that the first aim of digestion is the procuring of 

 the food either in a dissolved state, or, at all events, in a con- Di gest ion ac- 

 dition approaching thereto. But, in .addition to this, pro- compiishes so- 

 found changes in the very nature of the digested material metamorphosis 

 must, in an incidental way, be constantly occurring. Thus of the food - 

 the action of saliva is to produce lactic acid from starch, and thus, in 

 the stomach itself, starch is transmuted into sugar. In some cases the 

 first stage of digestion seems to be actually the reverse of what has been 

 here set forth. Milk, when received into the stomach, undergoes coagu- 

 lation, and, in like manner, so also does soluble albumen. But these are 

 only incidental changes, the temporary solids thus produced soon lique- 

 fying as proper digestion sets in. There is reason to believe that all the 

 protein bodies are passed into the condition of albuminose, and this though 

 they may have been introduced in the liquid state. Even soups and 

 broths require to be digested. A solution of gelatine, after G t . 

 it has been in the stomach, refuses to gelatinize, a solution ges of the food 

 of albumen to coagulate. The circumstance that gases may di^iJons^an?" 

 be evolved from digesting material, both in the stomach and assimilation of 

 intestine, is a sufficient proof that that material is undergoing water< 



