ALIMENTARY CANAL AND ITS APPENDAGES 405 



areolar connective tissue : and, outside, a muscular coat made up of 

 two layers, an inner with transversely and an outer with longi- 

 tudinally arranged fibers. In and beneath its mucous membrane 

 are numerous small mucous glands whose ducts open into the 

 tube. 



The Stomach (Fig. 129) is a somewhat conical bag placed trans- 

 versely in the upper part of the abdominal cavity. Its larger end is 

 turned to the left and lies close beneath the diaphragm; opening 

 into its upper border, through the 

 cardiac orifice at a, is the gullet d. 

 The narrower right end is con- 

 tinuous at c with the small intes- 

 tine; the aperture between the 

 two is the pyloric orifice. The 

 pyloric end of the stomach lies 

 lower in the abdomen than the 

 cardiac, and is separated from 

 the diaphragm by the liver (see FIG 129 ._ The ' s t omach . dt lower 



Fig.l). The concave border be- end of the gullet; a, position of the 



,, ._ . cardiac aperture; b, the fundus; c, 



tween the two Orifices IS known the pylorus; e, the commencement of 



, 4.1,^ n ~n 4 A 4-\*^ the small intestine; along a. b, c. the 



as the Small Curvature, and the great curvatu re; between the pylorus 



convex as the great curvature, of and d > the lesser curvature, 

 the stomach. From the latter hangs down a fold of peritoneum 

 (ne, Fig. 1) known as the great omentum. It is spread over the rest 

 of the abdominal contents like an apron. After middle life much 

 fat frequently accumulates in the omentum, so that it is largely re- 

 sponsible forljie "fair round belly with good capon lin'd." The 

 protrusion b to the left side of the cardiac orifice, Fig. 129, is the 

 fundus. The size of the stomach varies greatly with the amount 

 of food in it; just after a moderate meal it is about ten inches long, 

 by five wide at its broadest part. 



Structure of the Stomach. This organ has four coats, known 

 successively from without in as the serous, the muscular, the sub- 

 mucous, and the mucous. The serous coat is formed by a reflection 

 of the peritoneum, a double fold of which slings the stomach ; after 

 separating to envelop it the two layers again unite and, hanging 

 down beyond it, form the great omentum. The muscular coat 

 (Fig. 47) consists of unstriped muscular tissue arranged in three 

 layers: an outer, longitudinal, most developed about the curva- 



