DIGESTIVE APPARATUS OF MAN. 255 



requires to be submitted to the action of the gastric fluid for a longer 

 period, the stomach forms a more considerable enlargement, and is placed 

 more out of the direct line between the oesophagus and the commence- 

 ment of the intestine. The former condition obtains in the Carnivora, 

 and particularly in those which live more upon blood than upon flesh, 

 such as Weasels, Stoats, &c., in which this part of the alimentary tube 

 is almost straight ; the latter condition is found among the Herbivora, 

 and the provision for the delay of the aliment attains its greatest com- 

 plexity in the Ruminant animals. The form of the human stomach 

 (Fig. 74) is intermediate between that of purely carnivorous and purely 

 herbivorous animals. As in the former, there is a direct passage from 

 the cardiac orifice, or entrance of the oesophagus, to the pyloric orifice, 

 or commencement of the intestine; but there is also a considerable 

 dilatation or cul de sac, which is out of that line ; and it appears that, 

 during the digestive process, there is a constriction across the stomach, 

 which separates the cardiac portion from the pyloric, and causes the 

 retention of the food in the dilated part or large extremity. The gas- 

 tric fluid is still secreted in the walls of this organ, by scattered follicles 

 which pour their products into its cavity through separate orifices ; but 

 the bile is elaborated by a distinct organ, altogether removed from it, 

 which transmits its secretion by a single duct, that opens into the intes- 

 tinal tube at a short distance from its commencement ; and at the same 

 point is delivered the pancreatic secretion, which, as we shall hereafter 

 see ( 480), takes an important share in the preparation of the alimentary 

 products. 



448. The action of the Stomach is restricted, in the higher animals, 

 to the reduction of the food by the solvent powers of the gastric juice, 

 and to the absorption (by the vessels in its walls) of those parts of it 

 which are in a state of the most perfect solution. The changes which 

 are produced by the admixture of the biliary and pancreatic fluids take 

 place in the intestine ; and the principal part of the nutritive elements 

 of the food are taken up by the absorbent vessels of the walls of the 

 intestine, after that process has been accomplished. It would seem as 

 if the preparation of the food for absorption were not by any means 

 completed, in this first portion of the alimentary canal ; for it is still 

 destined to pass through a long and convoluted tube, which is sometimes 

 extended to an extraordinary degree ; and in this passage it is gradually 

 exhausted of its nutritious matter. The length of the intestinal canal 

 bears a close relation to the character of the food. In the Carnivorous 

 animals, whose aliment is easily dissolved and prepared for conversion 

 into blood, the intestine is comparatively short ; thus in the Lion and 

 other Felines it is no more than three times the length of the body ; 

 and in some of the bloodsucking Bats, it is almost straight and simple. 

 On the other hand, in Herbivorous animals it is of enormous length ; 

 thus in the Sheep it is about twenty-eight times as long as the body. 

 In animals whose diet is mixed, its length is intermediate between 

 these extremes ; thus in Man, the whole length of the intestinal tube is 

 about thirty feet, or between five and six times that of the body, 

 intestine is of much smaller diameter along its first portion, than it is 

 nearer its termination ; and it is consequently distinguished into the 



