SOME POINTS IN THE ANATOMY OF THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM. 53 



and not outside it as figured by Testut. These lymphoid 

 nodules, which correspond to solitary glands, have, owing to their 

 great number, been almost completely crushed out of the 

 mucosa (in which they chiefly lie in the intestine) into the sub- 

 mucosa. Some few lymphoid nodules lie in the mucosa also. 



The blood-vessels of the ctecum and appendix I have found to 

 agree with Jonnesco's description. I have never been able to 

 trace a branch from the ovarian artery to the appendix in the 

 female. 



Transmrse colon. — The state of the peritoneal covering on the 

 first part of the posterior surface of the transverse colon would 

 seem to depend in some degree on the extent to which the liver 

 passes downwards on the right side. With a small, high liver, 

 no mesentery is present ; on the other hand, when the liver is 

 enlarged in the vertical direction, it pushes the colon downwards 

 before it, and brings the upper line of the peritoneal reflection 

 from its back, into contact with the lower, thus giving rise to a 

 mesentery. 



I can corroborate Jonnesco's statement that the phreno-colic 

 ligament is developed from the left margin of the great omentum. 

 The peritoneum of the splenic flexure is similar in arrangement 

 to that of the descending colon. 



Sigmoid Jlexurc and rectuin. — It has been customary to divide 

 the portion of the large intestine beyond the descending colon 

 into sigmoid flexure and rectum. Treves in 1885 and Jonnesco 

 in 1889 directed attention to the fact that no such loop as the 

 classical sigmoid flexure lying in the iliac fossa was to be found 

 in nature, and also that the separation of the first portion of the 

 rectum from the sigmoid flexure— so-called — was both artificial 

 and inaccurate. They pointed out that the 'first part of the 

 rectum ' really belongs to the ' sigmoid flexure,' with which it has 

 everything in common, and that on no grounds can it be properly 

 assigned to the rectum. 



An unbiassed study of the parts concerned, particularly in 

 bodies the viscera of which have been hardened in situ, will 

 leave little doubt, I believe, that the old descriptions are not 

 only artificial, but erroneous, and that the admirable account 

 of this part of the intestine given by Jonnesco is very much 

 more satisfactory. 



