Although Rossbach also used dogs, his results vary considerably from
those of Hofmeister and Schütz. This discrepancy is possibly accounted
for by a difference in method, for Rossbach left the stomach in the
body. The dogs were treated with morphia and curare, and the abdomen
was then widely opened, so that the movements could be clearly seen.
When the stomach was full Rossbach saw deep constrictions begin near
the middle and pass in waves to the pylorus. At first these movements
were weak; later, however, they became more vigorous. The fundus
remained in tonic contraction about its contents and took no part in
the peristalsis.
Before attempting to explain the difference in the records of these
observers I shall give an account of what may be seen in a cat by use
of bismuth subnitrate and the Röntgen rays.
1. _Movements of the pyloric part._--Within five minutes after a cat
has finished a meal of bread, there is visible near the duodenal end
of the antrum a slight annular contraction which moves peristaltically
to the pylorus; this is followed by several waves recurring at regular
intervals. Two or three minutes after the first movement is seen very
slight constrictions appear near the middle of the stomach, and
pressing deeper into the greater curvature, course slowly towards the
pyloric end. As new regions enter into constriction, the fibres just
previously contracted become relaxed, so that there is a true moving
wave, with a trough between two crests. When a wave swings round the
bend in the pyloric part the indentation made by it deepens; and as
digestion goes on the antrum elongates and the constrictions running
over it grow stronger, but until the stomach is nearly empty they do
not entirely divide the cavity. After the antrum has lengthened, a
wave takes about thirty-six seconds to move from the middle of the
stomach to the pylorus. At all periods of digestion the waves recur at
intervals of almost exactly ten seconds. So regular is this rhythm that
many times I have been able to determine within two or three seconds
when a minute had elapsed simply by counting six similar phases of the
undulations as they passed a given point. It results from this rhythm
that when one wave is just beginning several others are already running
in order before it. Between the rings of constriction the stomach is
bulged out, as shown in the various outlines in Figures 2, 3, 4, and 5.
The number of waves during a single period of digestion is larger than
might possibly at first be supposed. In a cat that finished eating
fifteen grams of bread at 10.52 A.M., the waves were running regularly
at 11.00 o’clock. The stomach was not free from food until 6.12 P.M.
During that time the cat was fastened to the holder at intervals of
half an hour, and the waves were always observed following one another
in slow and monotonous succession. At the rate of three hundred and
sixty an hour, approximately two thousand six hundred waves passed over
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