32 PROFESSOR D. J. CUNNINGHAM 



gastric tube. But perhaps the experiment which conveys the clearest impression of 

 the tubular form assumed by the right portion of the stomach during active digestion, 

 and the powerful effect which its peristaltic contractions have upon its contents as 

 these pass to and fro within it, is that in which he introduced into the stomach through 

 the fistula six small muslin bags containing various articles of food, and arranged on 

 a string at intervals of one inch from each other (Experiment 42, p. 268). "The 

 bags seemed to have been as forcibly pressed as if they had been firmly grasped in 

 the hand," and " in proportion as they had settled into the pyloric extremity." 



As I have indicated, the stomach-form which we have had under discussion may be 

 taken as the type of a series of stomachs which are not infrequently met with, and 

 which all present very much the same general features. In the Anatomical Department 

 of the University of Edinburgh there are ten such specimens, and, if these be arranged 

 according to the shape exhibited by each, a more or less complete gradation from one 

 form into another is seen, and an excellent idea of the manner in which the stomach 

 becomes emptied is obtained. Several of these (Specimens III. A , XIII. B , I. B , II. B , III. B ) 

 are depicted in PL III., and figs. 21, 22, 23, 29, and 31 may be compared in that order 

 from this point of view. 



Specimen III. A is a full stomach obtained from a young adult male (PI. III. fig. 21). 

 From its form we may conclude that at the time of death the digestive process was in 

 a state of abeyance, or was just on the point of beginning. A broad, shallow, annular 

 constriction, most evident on the greater curvature, encircles the body of the stomach 

 about its middle, and produces an indistinct subdivision of the organ into its two 

 functional portions. This is not an unusual appearance to find in the full stomach. 



Specimen XII!. B presents an altogether different picture (fig. 22). It was obtained 

 from an adult female. The position and relations which it exhibited within the 

 abdominal cavity are seen in fig. 27. This stomach is obviously in the early stages of 

 the emptying process.* The cardiac sac is relatively of great size and capacity, and was 

 filled with a liquid grumous material which readily flowed out before the gelatine was 

 introduced. In girth, the sac at the widest part is 250 mm., whilst it forms 260 mm., 

 or 60'5 per cent., of the length of the greater curvature. The gastric tube is sausage- 

 like, strongly curved upon itself, and its walls are firmly contracted. It forms 170 mm., 

 or 39 "5 per cent., of the length of the greater curvature, and is thus relatively short as 

 compared with the gastric tube in Specimen I. B (fig. 23). This shortness is due to the 

 relatively small portion of the body of the stomach which has become tubular. At the 

 junction of the gastric tube with the cardiac sac there is an annular constriction — very 

 deep and distinct on the side of the greater curvature, but hardly perceptible on the 

 lesser curvature. The incisura angularis is quite evident, and the pyloric canal is closed 

 tightly along its whole length by the firm contraction of its sphincteric cylinder. 



* A still earlier stage is seen in the stomach described by Dixon (12). He has been so kind as to furnish me 

 with a drawing of this specimen, and from this it would appear that no part of the body of the stomach is involved 

 in the formation of the tubular portion. 



