=Atrophy of the Stomach.= This condition of the stomach can hardly be looked upon as an independent malady, being rather an attendant of the general wasting of certain diseases, particularly of pulmonary consumption, marasmus, and starvation. The organ, in these cases, may be reduced to less than half its normal proportions, while its walls may be thinned and frequently softened. =Dilatation of the Stomach=, is another condition that can scarcely be considered as a primary affection. A great variation in the size of this organ is evidently compatible with health, large eaters having necessarily large stomachs, yet as the result of certain other morbid conditions, dilatation to an enormous extent may be induced. The following conditions may result in dilatation: 1. Obstruction of the pylorus, as in scirrhus of that portion of the stomach. 2. Destruction of a segment of the muscular coat by ulceration, or by becoming involved in a cancerous growth. Here the loss of contracting power, permits of a gradual dilatation, from the inability of the segment involved to aid in carrying on the contents, their accumulation above this point aiding in the distension. 3. An acute form of dilatation is sometimes met with, which can only be attributed to a paralysis of the muscular and secreting structures of the organ. It occasionally happens to a patient recovering from a fever. He has perhaps overindulged in eating, as is not unfrequently the case with convalescents, and is suddenly seized with intense pain in the stomach, followed by rapid and great distension, and finally death. The autopsy discloses the stomach enormously distended, and its contents, including matters, in some cases, which were ingested many days before. The mucous membrane appears but little changed, while the muscular coat is so thinned and stretched, as to appear like a scattered net-work of fibres. Morbid Growths. =Cancer.= This formidable disease occurs more frequently in the stomach, than in any other organ of the body, excepting the uterus of the female. The disease is usually primary in this organ, but frequently springs up secondarily in other parts. The disease may occur in the three following forms—the _scirrhus_, _medullary_, and _colloid_; while Dr. Brinton adds a fourth, the _villous_ cancer of the mucous membrane. The usual seat of the disease is at the pylorus. It may involve a portion or the whole circumference of this opening, and from this extend along the lesser curve. In some cases, it commences at the cardiac orifice, and very rarely involves the whole organ, the fundus usually remaining free. The walls of the stomach may become greatly thickened in this disease, the inner surface tuberculated and roughened, and the cavity much diminished in size. When situated at the pyloric end, the disease seldom or never extends into the duodenum, but when at the cardiac, it generally involves the lower portion of the œsophagus.