In fowls the rate is slow and the movement always peristaltic, without regard to consistency. A squirt-movement with liquids is manifestly impossible, as the parts forming the mouth are too hard and rigid. With this diminution of propulsive power in the mouth there is observed a greater reliance on the force of gravity. The head is raised each time after the mouth is filled, and the fluid by its own weight trickles into the œsophagus, through which it is carried by peristalsis. In the cat the movement is always peristaltic, and slightly faster than in fowls. A bolus takes from nine to twelve seconds in reaching the stomach. Liquids move somewhat more rapidly than semi-solids in the upper œsophagus. In the lower or diaphragmatic part the rate is very much slower than above, and is the same for liquids as for solids. In the dog the total time for the descent of a bolus is from four to five seconds. The food is always propelled rapidly in the upper œsophagus, and moves more slowly below. This rapid movement is frequently continued further with liquid food. No distinct pause was observed when the movement of the bolus changed from the rapid to the slower rate. In man and the horse liquids are propelled deep into the œsophagus at a rate of several feet a second by the rapid contraction of the mylohyoid muscles. Solids and semi-solids are slowly carried through the entire œsophagus by peristalsis alone. THE MOVEMENTS OF THE STOMACH STUDIED BY MEANS OF THE RÖNTGEN RAYS BY W. B. CANNON, M.D. _From the Laboratory of Physiology in the Harvard Medical School_ Extracts from _American Journal of Physiology_, 1898 Since the stomach gives no obvious external sign of its workings, investigators of gastric movements have hitherto been obliged to confine their studies to pathological subjects or to animals subjected to serious operative interference. Observations made under these necessarily abnormal conditions have yielded a literature which is full of conflicting statements and uncertain results. The only sure conclusion to be drawn from this material is that when the stomach receives food obscure peristaltic contractions are set going, which in some way churn the food to a liquid chyme and force it into the intestines. How imperfectly this describes the real workings of the stomach will appear from the following account of the actions of the organ studied by a new method. The mixing of a small quantity of subnitrate of bismuth with the food allows not only the contractions of the gastric wall, but also the movements of the gastric contents to be seen with the Röntgen rays in the uninjured animal during normal digestion. An unsuspected nicety of mechanical action and a surprising sensitiveness to nervous conditions have thereby been disclosed. INTRODUCTORY LITERATURE