ON THE STOMACH IN MAN AND THE ANTHROPOID APE. 11 



Littlejohn, Dr Graham Brown, and Dr D. Waterston have in like manner supplied 



me with valuable material. 



It is necessary that I should indicate the methods which were adopted for the purpose of fixing the 

 stomach in its natural form and preserving it in this form after its removal from the body. When the 

 abdominal cavity was opened an incision of about an inch in length was made through the most dependent 

 part of the wall of the organ. By elevating the upper part of the trunk, the fluid contents (when such 

 were present) were tlius allowed to flow out. The position of the subject was then changed : the shoulders 

 were depressed and the pelvis raised so as to make the aperture the highest part of the stomach, and by 

 means of a funnel or a syringe (without a nozzle) melted «elatine was allowed to flow gently into the 

 stomach through the incision in the wall. No pressure was employed, and a free overflow of the gelatine 

 was always permitted through the opening which held the funnel or the syringe. Anyone who has 

 knowledge of hollow viscei-a which have been satisfactorily hardened in situ by formalin, will know that 

 the stiffened walls, although they may partially collapse when fluid or gaseous contents are allowed to 

 escape, will recover their original condition when the material withdrawn is replaced by such a substance 

 as gelatine, and further, that so long as force is avoided in introducing the gelatine no distortion will 

 follow. Indeed, when the stomach is in its natural bed, with the other hardened viscera around it and 

 giving it support, the only risk of distortion ensuing from the method described arises from the possibility 

 of the anterior wall of a much-distended organ bulging beyond the curved plane previously occupied by 

 the posterior surface of the anterior abdominal wall. This risk was obviated by allowing the gelatine to 

 trickle in and always permitting a free overflow. 



General Form op Stomach. 



Notwithstanding the constantly varying form of the stomach, due to the amount 

 of its contents and the degree of contraction of its muscular coat, the organ presents 

 certain expansions and constrictions which are more or less permanent, although they 

 are frequently much obscured by the physiological changes which it undergoes. 



Cardiac Part of the Stomach and Lower End of the (Esophagus. — The expansion 

 or cul-de-sac at the left of the organ, known as the fundus, and the notch between it 

 and the lower end of the oesophagus, termed the incisura cardiaca, are sufficiently 

 obvious in almost all states of the stomach, and require no special notice. In a recent 

 paper upon the stomach by Hassk and Stricker (17), the portion of the oesophagus 

 adjoining the stomach is described as consisting of two parts, which are called respec- 

 tively the ampulla phrenica and the antrum cardiacum. 



The ampulla * is a fusiform expansion of the tube of variable length and girth 

 which lies within the thorax immediately above the point where the gullet is grasped 

 between the two muscular margins of the oesophageal opening of the diaphragm. 



In several of my specimens it is fairly well marked, and in two, obtained from a 

 young man (PL III. fig. 21) and a young male chimpanzee (PI. I. fig. 7), it is large 

 and conspicuous ; but in the majority of cases it cannot be detected. 



So far as my experience goes, the ampulla is rarely present in the foetus (PI. I. 

 fig. 6). It makes its appearance after the oesophagus becomes functional, and is 



* Hasse and Stricker state that the ampulla phrenica has been previously noticed by Mehnert. This is a 

 somewhat misleading statement, seeing that Mehnert (33) does not specially allude to the dilatation ; he seeks to 

 show that the oesophagus consists of twelve more or less fusiform enteromeres, and that traces of this metameric 

 subdivision may be seen in the shape of ring-like constrictions in the tube — the typical number of which he believes 

 to be thirteen. 



