SECT. KIX, — PHYSIOLOGY. 173 
certain, that husks of beans, stones of cherries 
and plums, and even substances of greater mag- 
nitude, find their way through the pylorus with- 
out much difficulty. 
ccccxxvi. As the expansion of the stomach is in 
part caused mechanically by the alimentary mass, 
its central surface does not cease to be in constant 
contiguity with the periphery of the aliment, 
though its bulk lessens by decomposition. 
ceccxxvil. When, however, the quantity of food 
is inconsiderable, its upper surface is not in contact 
with the stomach, when the body is in the erect 
position; and owing to this natural expansion of the 
stomach, the duration of digestion is not in exact 
proportion to the quantity of aliment. Fordyce, 
whose treatise on digestion is the best that I have 
perused, gives a statement very different; he 
_ says that “the stomach is always full, whether it 
- contains an ounce or a quart of any solid or fluid 
matter.” On opening dogs which had fasted ten or 
twelve hours, I have always found their stomachs 
expanded sufficiently to hold about a pint of fluid, 
and when any part of undigested aliment remained, 
it never was encircled by the stomach, as repre- 
sented by Fordyce, but only in contact with its 
surface, which happened to be lowest at the time 
of examination. The attachments of the stomach, 
and even the spleen, would oppose its contraction 
like the bladder or uterus. I am thus particular 
