(a) _Stomach Pockets._ These are four broad, thin pouches lying between
the exumbrella and the subumbrella in the four perradii (_e. g._ Fig.
9, _sp_) and separated from one another in the interradii merely by four
thin vertical strips of vascular lamella (_ivl_) or fusion between the
two endodermal surfaces of a primitively single undivided peripheral
cavity. The structure is exactly that which we should have if in a
Hydromedusa, for example Liriope (Trachomedusæ), the four radial canals
broadened out and the intervening cathammal plates correspondingly
narrowed, until the relations in size were just reversed, and instead
of four narrow radial canals separated from one another by four broad
cathammal plates, we had four broad radial canals or pouches separated by
four narrow cathammal plates.
The stomach pockets communicate at their top with the central stomach by
means of four moderately large openings, the gastric ostia. These are
seen in a side view of the whole animal as triangular spaces (Fig. 1, _g.
o._) near the top of the broad perradial sides. In Figures 7 and 8 they
are seen in cross-sections, in Fig. 4 in vertical section.
The communication between the stomach and each stomach pocket is guarded
by a valve that can cut the one entirely off from the other. The valve is
simply the flexible lower margin of the gastric ostium, a thin vertical
fold of the floor of the stomach, semilunar in shape, just at the point
where it is passing over into the stomach pocket. A longitudinal section,
such as is shown in Fig. 4, gives the best idea of the form and position
of the valve that can be obtained from any simple section. Internal to
the valve is seen a depression of the stomach wall, almost worthy to be
called a pocket. The valve itself lies as a wall across the end of this
depression, obstructing a free course to the stomach pocket. It will be
seen at once that any pressure of fluids in the stomach against this
vertical wall, or valve, would serve only to press it against the inner
surface of the exumbrella, and thus effectually close the entrance into
the stomach pocket. Such a closure would both keep the juices of the
stomach from entering the pockets and the embryos in the pockets from
entering the stomach before the proper time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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