AND FAMILY '(DISPENSATORY | 3 
: The peritoneum, is fo called from ftretching and {preading about, being drawn over 
all the parts between the midriff and thighs. Its original is from the firft forma. 
. tion, at the third vertebra of the loins, where it is thicker, fo that it Cannot, in that 
place, be feparated without breaking. The mufcles of the belly being taken away, 
the peritoneum comes to view : it is tied above to the midriff 5 below to the hare and 
flank-bones; in the fore-part firmly to the traniverfe mufcles, but chiefly to their 
tendons about the dines alba, behind to the fefhy heads of thefe mulcles. It is {per- 
matical, cold and dry by nature, and of a fubftance not fimple and uniform, but dou- 
ble, and unequal in thicknefs. Itis a membrane double in all places, but it is moft 
apparent about the veriebre of the loins, where, between the duplications, lie the 
vena cava, the aorta, and the kidneys. Its ufe is to fend connections toall the parts ; 
to beftow coats upon all the bowels of the abdomen ; to give a covering to the dia- 
phragm, liver, and fpleen; to produce the ligament which upholds the liver; to 
make a communion with a)] the principal parts by Veins, arteries, and nerves; to 
_ produce the omentum, and, by its reduplication, the mefentery, 
The omentum, or caul, fo called, becaufe it floats or fwims upon the guts: it lies 
under the peritonzeum, and is ficuated at the liver, fpleen, and bottom of the ftomach: 
in fome it ceafes at the navel, in others it falls below the navel, and fometimes it 
reaches to the os pudis, where it is inferted. It is a thin membrane, endowed with 
_ duch fat, double, and disjoined, _ In men, when it defcends into the {crotum, it 
Caufes the rupture epiplocele, which happens moft commonly on the left fide, becaufe 
it is extended rather to the left than to the right fide. Its fubtance is membranous, 
that it might admit dilatation and extenfion 3 it is compact, to hinder the diffipation 
Of the internal heat, and to repel the external cold: itis tied to the ftomach, being 
a middle part between the co/on and the fpleen. Its ufesare tocherifh and ftrength- 
€n the internal heat of rhe ftomach and inteftines ; to give nourifhment to the parts 
in time of famine; to contain the humours flowing from the inteftines, which the 
S/andulus cannot receive wholly at one time ; to prop up the branches of the veins 
‘and arteries of the ftomach, duodenum, colon, and {pleen ; and to generate the fat. 
_» The ftomach, called ventriculus, from its cavity, is fituated in the epigafrium, a 
Place encompafied with no bones, that it might ftretch the more eafily, immediately 
under the midriff, which it toucheth, fo that, if it be too full, it caufeth a difficulty 
of breathing, by hindering the motion of it. In the fore-part and.on the right fide, 
At is covered with the hollow of the liver ; in the left by the fpleen; fo that the fto- 
.Mach is as it were between two fires, bending a little towards the left Ay coonar tt wh : 
_and towards the back part it leans on the aorta, the cava, and the pancreas, which 
helps its heat, It is le(s in women than in men, to give way to the diftenfion of the 
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