Note 85 — THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM
Reading edition
Careful observations (especially on frozen subjects and those in which the organs have been hardened in situ) show that there is no abdominal part of the œsophagus in the strict sense of the term. The stomach here lies directly on the diaphragm, so that the last inch or so of the œsophagus is placed obliquely in the hiatus œsophageus, and is partly covered by the pleura, but not by peritoneum. In soft subjects the weight of the stomach, or traction on it, draws part of the œsophagus into the abdomen, inclosed in a collar of peritoneum.