274 BIOLOGICAL PHYSICS 



flexure, we would draw attention to the fact that a quantity 

 of gas is always present locally, and generally, throughout 

 the intestinal tract, and is dependent for its presence on 

 several causes, amongst others, to the following, viz, 

 air swallowed with the ingesta, gas generated by chemico- 

 physiological, or digestive, action and reaction, and gas 

 emitted from the bowel mucosa, but, from whatever, or 

 all, of these causes, there is always, in a physiologically 

 healthy state of the parts, a quantity, sufficient more or 

 less to balloon the bowel, and secure free passage to its 

 contents. Needless to say, this gas is, more or less, 

 locally confined, within the compartments into which the 

 intestinal tube is divided, and moved, from compartment 

 to compartment, by the ordinary peristaltic action of the 

 bowel wall, having to leave its lumen, when incompatible 

 with bodily comfort, by relaxation of the cardiac valve of 

 the stomach, and anal sphincter, situated, respectively, at 

 its two extremities That the " ballooning " of the bowel 

 is a function of nothing less than vital importance, must 

 be apparent to every one who has had an opportunity of 

 witnessing the phenomena in others, or has attentively 

 analysed his own sensations, in relation thereto. We need 

 only observe, therefore, that peristalsis, and anti-peristalsis, 

 are in constant operation to effect the phenomenon, and 

 that a feeling of absolute comfort in the neutral region is 

 possible only when the lumen of the intestinal tube is 

 equally relaxed, or at rest, or contracting on its contents, 

 without their undergoing more than the normal amount of 

 obstruction to their forward, or backward, passage. In 

 all the activities of the bowel wall, it is a primary necessity 

 that a normal quantity of ballooning materials should be 

 present within its lumen, in which condition the bowel 

 musculature is supplied with a continuous " fulcrum," so 

 to speak, on which it can support itself in its continuous, 

 staltic, or vermicular, disposal of its contents, solid, 

 liquid, and gaseous. 



During active stalsis, both peri- and anti-, it may be 

 that considerable discomfort ensues, and when acutely 

 localised, a condition of violent spasm, or cramp, of the 

 bowel masculature is the result, also, that in minor 

 degrees of that discomfort, in the almost normal " state 



