ON THE STOMACH IN MAN AND THE ANTHROPOID APE. 33 



The stomach next in order in this series (Specimen I. B , fig. 23) has already been 

 fully described. It differs from Specimen XIII. B (fig. 22) in the relatively smaller size 

 of the cardiac sac and the relatively larger portion of the body of the stomach which 

 enters into the formation of the gastric tube. 



Specimen II. B was obtained from an elderly female, and it is shown in its relations 

 to the liver both from the front and from behind in figs. 26 and 29. Here a still 

 greater reduction of the cardiac sac has taken place ; but this shrinkage, as compared 

 with Specimen I. B (fig. 23) is more in girth than in length. It is only 140 mm. in 

 girth, whilst it forms 140 mm., or 56 per cent., of the length of the greater curvature. 

 The gastric tube is narrow, with firmly contracted walls. It joins the lower end of the 

 cardiac sac at a right angle, and is sharply marked off from it by a deep indentation in 

 the greater curvature. It forms 110 mm., or 44 per cent., of the greater curvature. Its 

 girth is very unequal at different points, due to three slight expansions of its wall, 

 separated by two faint intervening constrictions. These suggest the constriction- 

 waves described by Cannon as travelling over the gastric tube during the process 

 of emptying of the stomach. The incisura angularis is not evident, and thus it is 

 not possible to determine how much of the gastric tube is formed by the body of 

 the stomach. 



Specimen III. B was obtained from a young adult male. In fig. 30 it is seen 

 in situ. When the abdomen was opened the transverse colon lay in front of it, and also 

 occupied the vacant space which may be observed in the left hypochondrium. When 

 the colon was pulled down, the only part of the stomach visible was the strongly con- 

 tracted gastric tube extending downwards and to the right along the lower border of the 

 left lobe of the liver. A view of this specimen as seen from above, after its removal from 

 the abdomen, is given in fig. 31. Owing to the distended condition of the colon, the 

 cardiac sac occupied an almost horizontal position ; the fundus was directed backwards, 

 and the long axis of the sac extended forwards, with a slight inclination downwards 

 and to the left. The oesophagus opens into the upper surface of this portion of the 

 stomach close to the lesser curvature. The girth of the cardiac sac is 157 mm., and 

 the sac forms 170 mm., or 53 per cent., of the greater curvature. As in Specimen II. B , 

 the gastric tube leads out from the cardiac sac at a right angle. It is long and narrow, 

 with firmly contracted walls ; but as no incisura angularis can be detected, it is impossible 

 to say to what extent it is formed by the body of the stomach. It forms 150 mm., or 

 47 per cent., of the length of the greater curvature of the stomach. At its extremity the 

 pyloric canal turns sharply backwards. 



The girth of the gastric tube is nearly uniform, but exhibits faint wave-like 

 undulations along its whole length. # 



* Two objections have been raised to the interpretation which has been offered regarding the nature of the 

 stomach-forms which are described above. When the writer first introduced the subject at a meeting of the 

 Anatomical Society at Oxford, it was suggested that the condition exhibited by the specimens might possibly be due 

 to the action of the formalin which had been employed in the preservation of the subjects. Three arguments may be 

 advanced against such a supposition, viz. : (1) that stomach-forms of a similar kind have from time to time been 



TRANS. ROY. SOC. EDIN., VOL. XLV. PART I. (NO. 2). 5 



