SOME POINTS IN THE ANATOMY OF THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM. 49 



Meckel's diverticulum ilei. — -I have incidentally looked into the 

 literature of Meckel's diverticulum, and it may be of interest 

 to give some of the results, for which I am chiefly indebted 

 to the Collective Investigation of the Anatomical Society of 

 Great Britain and Ireland, and to the papers of L. J. Mitchell, 

 Kelynack, Kogie and Augier. Frequency. — In 3302 bodies 

 specially examined with reference to its existence, it was 

 present in 73, or 2*2 per cent., and it appears to be more common 

 in the male than in the female. Position. — In 59 cases its 

 position with reference to the end of the ileum was examined, 

 and its average distance from the ileo-ctecal valve was 32| inches 

 measured along the gut, the greatest distance being 12 feet, and 

 the smallest 6 inches. Length of the diverticulum. — The average 

 of 52 specimens was 2-1 inches, the longest being 5^ inches, the 

 shortest half an inch. The diameter usually equals that of the 

 intestine from which it springs ; occasionally it is cord-like and 

 pervious only for a short way ; on the other hand, it has 

 attained a diameter of 3| inches. 



Large Intestine. 



In formalin-hardened bodies, portions of the large intestine, 

 but particularly the descending and sigmoid colons, are when 

 empty generally reduced to a diameter of about f or f inch. 

 Under similar conditions, the other parts of the colon are 

 correspondingly reduced. 



The appendices epiploic^, although generally said to be absent 

 in the foetus, can be distinctly seen as early as the seventh month ; 

 at this date, however, they contain no fat. 



Tcenice coli. — The position of the three tEenite on the intestine 

 is as follows : — On the ascending, descending, and iliac colons one 

 tyenia lies on the anterior aspect of the gut and two behind, one 

 to the outer (postero-external), the other to the inner side 

 (postero-internal). The taenia in any one of these positions on 

 the ascending colon occupies the corresponding position on the 

 descending and iliac colons. On the transverse colon their 

 arrangement is different, but is rendered exactly similar by 

 turning the great omentum with the colon up over the thorax. 

 It is chiefly along the first of these (the anterior) that the 



VOL. XXXV. (N.S. VOL. XV.) — OCT. 1900. D 



