THE STOMACH. 



457 



the nature of its food. Relatively, it is more considerable in common-bred 

 Horses, and in the Ass and Mule. When empty, its average weight is between 

 A and 4 pounds. 



Form. — Elongated laterally, curved on itself, often constricted in its middle, 

 and slightly depressed from before to behind, this reservoir presents, externally : 

 1. Two faces — an anterior and posterior, smooth and rounded. 2. A great or 

 convex curvature, forming the inferior border of the organ, and giving attach- 

 ment, throughout its extent, to the great omentum — a membranous fold which 

 has been described as a dependency of the serous membrane. 3. A lesser or 

 concave curvature, into which the oesophagus is inserted, and which is united, to 

 the right of that canal, to the liver, by means of a fra^num known as the hepato- 



Fig. 259. 



STOMACH OF TllK imasK. 



A, Cardiac end of the oesophagus; B, pyloric end and ring. 



gastric ligament. 4. A left extremity (the cardiac), dilated in the form of a large 

 conical tuberosity, and constituting the left ad-de-sac {or fundus) of the stomach. 

 5. A right extremity (the pyloric), narrower, curved upwards, and continued by 

 the duodenum, from which it is separated by a marked constriction — this is the 

 right cul-de-sac of the stomach. 



Relations. — Studied in its connections with the neighbouring organs, the 

 stomach is related : by its anterior face, with the diaphragm and liver ; by its 

 posterior face, with the diaphragmatic curvature of the colon. Its inferior 

 border, margined to the left by the spleen, which is suspended from it by means 

 of the great omentima, is separated from the inferior abdominal wall by the 

 large anterior flexures of the colon ; its distance from this wall depends upon 



