Home study course in osteopathy, massage and manual therapeutics.

Date:
[between 1900 and 1909?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Home study course in osteopathy, massage and manual therapeutics. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    relaxation of these fibres is called the Peristaltic Motion, and is similar to that of the intestines. The Stomach is somewhat pear-shaped, the larger end being upon the left side of the body, beneath the ribs, in contact with the spleen, to which it is joined by a ligament of connective tissue. The smaller end is on the right side of the body, under the liver. It has two openings: one where the oesophagus enters, called the Cardiac opening because its location is near the heart, from which it is separated by the diaphragm; the other is styled the Pyloric or gate opening, because it is provided with a muscular valve known as the pylorus or gate keeper, the object of which is to prevent the premature exit of food from the stomach. The lining of the stomach is very soft and delicate and is amply supplied with blood-vessels, mucous glands and gastric tubules or follicles. These last secrete a thin, acid fluid, known. as Gastric Juice. The muscles in the walls of the stomach and outside of its mucous membrane are involuntary and are arranged in three layers. Their alternate contraction and relaxation serve to agitate thoroughly the contents of the stomach. The remaining portion of the Alimentary Canal consists of the intestines, or bowels, which occupy the abdomi- nal cavity, and are divided into the small and large intestines. The Small Intestine is a cylindrical conduit, coiled upon itself and extending from the pylorus to the large intestine, its opening into v/hich is guarded by the ileo-coecal valve, an arrangement which readily admits of the passage into the large intestine of refuse material, but interposes a very con- siderable barrier to its return. In the walls of the intestine, throughout nearly its entire length, are involuntary muscular fibres, which are abundantly supplied with a network of nerves. The lining of the intestine is very velvety, and throughout the larger part of the canal is arranged in transverse shelf- like folds, more or less circular in form, which by a winking motion sway backward and forward in the fluids of the intes- tines, retarding the passage of food and providing a very large surface for secretion and absorption. The velvety con- dition of the mucous membrane is due to its numerous cone- like elevations, presenting an appearance like plush, and known as the intestinal villi. There are more than ten million of these villi. Within them are numerous blood-vessels, which