The stomach is the principal organ of digestion. It is the most dilated part of the alimentary canal, and is situated between the termination of the esophagus and the commencement of the small intestine. Its form is somewhat pyriform with the large end (fundus) directed upward and the small end bent to the right. It is situated in the left hypochondriae and epigastric regions, and is placed, in part, immediately behind the anterior wall of the abdomen and beneath the Diaphragm. Viewing the stomach from in front it appears that the right margin of the esophagus is continued downward as the upper tow-third of this border bending sharply backward and to the right, to complete the smaller curvature.
The greater curvature begin at the left border of the termination of the esophagus in a somewhat acute angle; it lies in contact for some distance, and then sweeps downward with a convexity to the left and continued across the middle line of the body, finally turns upward and backward, to terminate at the commencement of the small intestine.
It will be seen that the stomach may be divided into the main or cardiac portion, the long axis of which is directed downward, with a little inelination forward and to the right, and smaller or pyloric portion, the long axis of which is horizontal with an inelintion backward. Of the two openings, the cardiac orifice, by which it contaminated with esophagus, is situated slightly to the left of the middle line of the body to the right of the fundus, or dilated upper extremely of the stomach, and is directed downward; the other, the pyloric orifice, by which it communicates with the small intestine, is a lower plane, close to the right of the mid-line, and looks directly backward.
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