80 WARFARE IN THE HUMAN BODY 



energy was not devoted to nutrition ; it had time at its 

 disposal, and could develop other functions leading to 

 further structures. That the mammalian stomach is 

 such an organized failure is suggested forcibly by the 

 musculature. In the small intestine this is composed of 

 two layers of fibres, circular and longitudinal. In the 

 stomach it is made of three sets, an inmost layer of oblique 

 fibres being added. This oblique layer is obviously a 

 later growth and, as would be expected on the lines laid 

 down as to disaster and repair, its strongest fibres are 

 found supporting the greater curvature or dilatation of 

 the stomach. When speaking of these muscle fibres, it 

 is, of course, understood that they not only resisted the 

 passive strains of ingested food, but also exercised their 

 active basal function of contractility as well. This later 

 oblique layer is naturally less well developed than the 

 longitudinal and circular fibres. Other oblique fibres are 

 formed about the pylorus, where they form the sphincter. 

 I suggest that these oblique muscle fibres arose at points of 

 strain, under intense stimulation. The dilated pouch has 

 reacted in accordance with mechanical law, just as the 

 heart did with its more complex arrangement of oblique 

 fibres woven into a structure capable of giving in the left 

 ventricle a thrust of over fifty pounds. The reacting 

 organism is no fool of a mechanic either in its bones or its 

 muscles, and these phenomena are additional reasons for 

 extending Wolff's law to all tissues if it is understood that, 

 while bone responds to gravitational and compressional 

 stresses, and to the tensile stress of muscle, the fibres of 

 muscle produce the very stresses to which they respond 

 by increase of bulk and strength. If protoplasm did not 

 so react there would be no problems to solve. 



Such views on the mammalian gastric apparatus are so 



