194 ELEMENTS OF HISTOLOGY. [Chap. xxiv. 



extremity. The former extends to the free surface, 

 projecting just through an opening of the goblet, 

 and resembles a fine hair; the latter is generally 

 branched, and passes towards the rnucosa ; there, 

 probably, it becomes connected with a nerve-fibre, the 

 mucosa of these parts containing rich plexuses of 

 nerve-fibres. 



Into the pits surrounded by taste goblets open the 

 ducts of the serous glands only (von Ebner). 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



THE (ESOPHAGUS AND STOMACH. 



262. I. THE oesophagus. Beginning with the 

 oesophagus, and ending with the rectum of the large 

 intestine, the wall of the alimentary canal consists of 

 an inner coat or mucous membrane, an outer or mus- 

 cular coat, and outside this a thin fibrous coat, which, 

 commencing with the cardia of the stomach, is the 

 serous covering, or the visceral peritoneum. 



The epithelium lining the inner or free surface of 

 the mucous membrane of the oesophagus is a thick, 

 stratified, pavement epithelium. 



In Batrachia, not only the oral cavity and 

 pharynx, but also the oesophagus, are lined with 

 ciliated columnar epithelium. 



The mucous membrane is a fibrous connective 

 tissue membrane, the superficial part of which is 

 dense the mucosa; this projects, in the shape of 

 small papillae, into the epithelium. 



The deeper, looser portion of the mucous membrane 

 is the submucosa ; in it lie small mucous glands, the 

 ducts of which pass in a vertical or oblique direction 



