REVIEW. 
392 
another, which required the pressure of twenty pounds before 
the water escaped, allowed the fluid to flow when I applied very 
slight pressure to the cul-de-sac with my hands. 
The result of this observation suggests another source of 
fallacy in M. Flourens' experiments. The force generated by 
the contraction of the stomach’s muscular coat is distributed all 
over its superfices, whereas M. Flourens only applied vertical 
pressure to one aspect. It is easy to understand how the result 
obtained by his doing so might have been readily altered by 
simultaneously compressing the extremities of the organ. 
C. —After filling a stomach with water through the pylorus, 
this orifice was closed by ligature, and the viscus placed on a 
table. By grasping the stomach with my two hands, and ex¬ 
erting very considerable pressure in different directions, no 
water escaped. I then placed the stomach near the edge of the 
table, and on it a board with fifty-four pounds of iron; a little 
less weight than this sufficed to make the water dribble through 
the cardia; with this weight it flowed in a small but continuous 
stream. When I inclined the board backwards, so as to exert 
the greatest pressure on the great curvature of the stomach, the 
flow of water was freer than when I held the board horizontally; 
as I inclined it forwards the stream gradually diminished, and 
eventually stopped. Through an opening made at the great 
curvature I removed the mucous lining of the esophagus, and 
that in the immediate neighbourhood of the cardia. On pouring 
water through the artificial opening, it escaped through the car¬ 
diac orifice in a large stream by mere gravity. 
D. —Four stomachs, in the same circumstances as the above, 
did not give exit to the contained fluid, though grasped and 
firmly pressed by the hands of two persons; but the water 
escaped freely from all when the lining of the esophagus, and 
around the cardia was removed through an incised aperture 
made at the great curvature. 
E. —A stomach, treated and placed as usual, did not allow 
water to escape through the cardia when a boy, mounted on a 
board was placed over it; but the water flowed when a man, 
weighing one hundred and forty-four pounds, took the boy’s 
place. 
F. —One stomach, in the same condition as the preceding, did 
not allow the escape of any water through the cardia when a 
man weighing one hundred and fifty-seven pounds mounted on 
a board which had been placed horizontally over it. When a 
boy, weighing sixty and a half pounds, was added, water flowed 
in a continuous stream, and the viscus burst. 
G. —One stomach bore the weight of two men, without any 
water flowing through the cardiac orifice; on making an open- 
