The Digestive System 153 
walls. When empty the lining of this part of 
the stomach is thrown into a few comparatively 
large folds, but when greatly distended with food, 
as it sometimes is, the internal folds are com- 
pletely obliterated and the muscular layers are 
stretched until they have scarcely an eighth of 
their original thickness. In Figure 34 the stomach 
is considerably distended. 
The large region of the stomach frequently 
contains a number of stones, and. for that reason, 
probably, is sometimes spoken of as the gizzard. 
In one thirty-inch alligator fourteen pebbles of 
irregular shape, varying in largest diameter from 
four to seventeen mm. and aggregating six grams 
in weight, were found. Voeltzkow (78) says that 
gastroliths of two to three cm. diameter are 
found in the stomach of the adult Madagascar 
crocodile. 
Neither the transverse fold nor the smooth, 
lateral disks (or shields) described by Chaffanjon 
could be seen in either the empty or in the dis- 
tended stomach. 
The smaller part of the stomach, Fig. 34, p, lies 
to the right and somewhat ventrad to the anterior 
region of the larger part, near the entrance to the 
cesophagus. It connects by a fairly large opening 
with the larger part of the stomach, and by a 
smaller opening with the duodenum. The former 
opening apparently has no valve, unless it be a 
slight sphincter muscle; the latter is guarded by 
