10 PROFESSOR D. J. CUNNINGHAM 



—an analogy which is manifestly erroneous. Indeed, the utility of applying such 

 terms to the stomach is doubtful, seeing that they merely express two extreme 

 conditions of the gastric musculature, between which we find every phase of inter- 

 mediate gradation. 



The varying forms which the stomach may assume under the different conditions 

 to which it is subjected is largely a physiological question. The muscular coat, 

 operated on by a complex nervous mechanism, exercises a dominant influence in 

 determining many of the different shapes presented by the organ, and it is here that 

 improved methods of preservation have proved so helpful in enabling us to catch and 

 retain certain fleeting and temporary phases of stomach contraction which were 

 formerly lost through rapid post-mortem changes. 



Much information which has a direct bearing upon the anatomy of the stomach 

 has been recently acquired by the study of its rhythmical contractions as seen through 

 the agency of the Rontgen rays, by the direct examination of the organ in the living 

 animal, and also as the result of clinical research. But the question has likewise its 

 anatomical side. The original form of the stomach in the foetus, as Hasse and 

 Stricker (17) have pointed out, is largely determined by the character of the chamber 

 in the abdominal cavity it is called upon to occupy, and by the fact that only in the 

 interval between the liver and spleen it is allowed any degree of freedom for its proper 

 expansion. Further, during the later period of intra-uterine life, as shown by Erik 

 Muller (40), and during the whole period of extra-uterine life, the walls of the 

 abdominal recess in which it lies — formed as these are by many parts and organs all 

 more or less subject to individual changes in form, bulk, and position — exercise a 

 potent influence on the shape and position of the stomach. 



One of the last papers which Professor His (22) wrote was upon the form and 

 position of the human stomach in subjects hardened by formalin injection. In this 

 communication the condition of the stomach in eighteen individuals is described and 

 illustrated by photographs taken from casts prepared by Herr Steger of Leipzig. 

 For several years I have been engaged in a similar investigation, but in one sense 

 the material at my disposal has not been so plentiful. I have only had three adult 

 males, three adult females, and three children, together with one chimpanzee and two 

 young orangs, specially hardened by formalin injection for this purpose ; but then I 

 have had ample opportunity of carrying on my observations on the subjects which have 

 been prepared for ordinary class work, seeing that formalin is now employed in every 

 case to harden the viscera in the abdomen. Indeed, it is from the latter source that 

 some of my most interesting specimens have been obtained. I have also received the 

 most generous assistance in the supply of material from numerous friends. Mr Harold 

 Stiles has placed at my disposal many young specimens, several of which had been 

 carefully hardened in situ, together with a number of microscopic sections through the 

 pyloric canal ; from Professor Elliot Smith I received a characteristic example of 

 hour-glass stomach; whilst Dr A. Bruce, Dr Shknnan, Dr Beattie, Dr Harvey 



