ABDOMINAL VISCEEA IN MAN. 



185 



again ; whilst those of the lower group ran more or less per- 

 pendicularly from above downwards and back again. 



Speaking generally, I think this statement is fairly borne out. 



Pursuing this question Weinburg enquires: first, whether 

 this general arrangement applies only to the superficial coils ; 

 and, second, if in these two chief regions the coils of the 

 intestines maintain generally the same position relative to one 

 another, although they may move bodily. 



Leaving for a moment Weinburg's work and summarising 

 that of Sernotf, who, working on fresh bodies and on three 

 hardened subjects of various ages, indicates the following 

 regularity : — 



(1) The intestinal coils in the upper abdominal region 

 followed in all the ascertained cases a more or less horizontal 

 direction, 



(2) The coils in the regions to the right and left of the 

 vertebral column are generally vertical. 



(3) The convolutions in the pelvic cavity have a generally 

 horizontal, sagittal direction. 



(4) Those lying mider the abdominal wall in the middle are 

 quite irregular. 



Sernoff found the upper horizontal, the left vertical, and a 

 part of the central coils to be jejunum; the rest of the middle, 

 the right vertical, and the pelvic groups to be ileum. 



Eeturning to Weinburg's work :— He studied the bodies of 

 ten infants, and his conclusions must be open, therefore, to the 

 objections foreshadowed at the beginning of this section. The 

 upper part of the small intestine, varying from one-fifth to a half 

 of the total length, he found to consist generally of deeply lying, 

 more or less horizontal coils, lying in the upper left region of the 

 abdomen, overhung to some extent by the stomach and colon. 

 In two of the cases coils extended across to the hepatic flexure 

 of the colon and back again. In three cases the coils were to 

 some extent superficial. This upper group passes, as a rule, 

 deeply into the next. 



The next group of coils lying to the left of the left psoas 

 muscle comprises, as a rule, the middle portions of the small 

 intestine, and both in its superficial and deep coils is quite 



irregular. 



