ON THE STOMACH IN MAN AND THE ANTHROPOID APE. 27 



gastric tube was observed curving along the lower border of the left lobe of the liver, 

 by which it was to a slight extent overlapped (PL III. fig. 24). A view of this stomach 

 from behind, showing its relations to the liver and spleen, is exhibited in PI. III. 

 fig. 25. The manner in which the lesser curvature circumscribes the prominent and 

 large tuber omentale of the liver on the under surface of the left hepatic lobe is seen. 

 It will be further noticed that the sharp bend in the gastric tube takes place opposite 

 the longitudinal fissure of the liver, and that the pyloric canal and the first part of the 

 duodenum are directed backwards and upwards in contact with the lobulus quadratus. 



Stomachs which present forms somewhat similar have been described by the late 

 Professor Birmingham (2) in the admirable account which he has given of the digestive 

 system. He regarded the condition as representing the typical state of the empty 

 stomach. Dixon (L2) has likewise exhibited at a meeting of the Anatomical Society 

 the stomach of an adult male which presented a subdivision into a cylindrical and con- 

 stricted part towards the pyloric end, and a dilated cardiac portion containing much milky 

 food-material. He considered that the condition " might be taken to represent a 

 possible normal temporary form of the stomach." The so-called systolic forms of 

 stomach figured by Pfaundler (41) may also be said to have some features in common 

 with the condition under consideration. But it is not necessary to restrict our atten- 

 tion to recent times, or, in other words, to the period during which formalin has been 

 used as a preservative agent, to meet with references to stomach-forms which closely 

 approximate to that which I have described. Such references are chiefly found in the 

 literature which deals with bilocular or hour-glass stomach. More than half a century 

 ago Broca (5) gave an account of a stomach removed from a female criminal shortly 

 after her execution, which exhibited a subdivision into a globular cardiac portion and 

 a long intestiniform or tubular part, and he refers to a specimen of a similar kind which 

 he had seen in a male criminal. 



In an interesting paper published in 1883, Mr W. Roger Williams (58) gives an 

 account of ten cases of what he terms " congenital contraction of the stomach." His 

 description is accompanied by outline drawings, and certain of these present a strong- 

 resemblance to the stomach-form under consideration. The description which he gives 

 of his Case III. is also suggestive ; he says : "The cardiac division was saccular in shape ; 

 the pyloric intestiniform — the latter being the larger and thicker." He is satisfied that 

 all his specimens are to be regarded as instances of congenital deformity. He failed to 

 find any pathological lesion at the site of the stricture, although in most he was able 

 to detect in the neighbourhood of the lesser curvature certain suspicious indurations or 

 scars at some little distance away. " I submit," he remarks, " that these appearances 

 only admit of one explanation, namely, that the lesions were really caused by, and were 

 secondary to, the contractions." But we need not dip further into the extensive 

 literature on this subject. Enough has been said to show that the stomach-form 

 exhibited in PI. III. fig. 23 is one which has been noticed at odd times by numerous 

 anatomists, although, from defective methods of preparation and the consequent failure 



