A THREATENED FACTORY 209 



the seat of the caecum we discover from the sounds which 

 begin soon after the meal was commenced, that a live- 

 liness has sprung up in the caecal region. No sooner does 

 the stomach begin to work than signals are issued to the 

 lower laboratories warning them to prepare for the recep- 

 tion of further consignments. The exact nature of the 

 signals or messages thus sent out we have not yet dis- 

 covered ; but they are probably missives which the active 

 stomach posts in the blood circulation, and which quickly 

 reach their -proper addresses in the lower segments of the 

 alimentary tract. The signalmen in charge of one section 

 of the alimentary line thus notify their colleagues in 

 charge of other sections to prepare for further traffic. 

 Nature has done her best to organise the alimentary 

 traffic on a self-adjusting basis. 



Although at usual times no movement is apparent in 

 the contents of the great bowel, yet at meal-times, par- 

 ticularly during and after breakfast, a sweeping move- 

 ment of a peculiar kind can be seen — "mass-movements," 

 Dr A. E. Barclay has named them. Suddenly the beaded 

 shadows of the transverse part of the great bowel — the 

 transverse colon — are drawn together and are shot as a 

 long quickly-moving bolt, which descends the left loin 

 and groin towards the pelvis, where it becomes stationary. 

 By movements of this kind the great bowel prepares for 

 the reception of a new load. 



It is a remarkable and, we think, an important circum- 

 stance that the first part of the great bowel — the caecum 

 and ascending colon — are not involved in the clearing 

 operations known as mass-movements. Should we ex- 

 amine our friend forty-eight or seventy-two hours later 

 we shall still find some trace of a bismuth shadow in his 

 caecum. One may well suspect that the caecum is charged 

 with a batch leavened by some particular ferment or 

 yeast which has to be husbanded. In this connection we 

 may also note that wind or gas is always present in the 

 caecum ; no matter when we may tap with a finger the 

 region of the belly in which it lies, we always elicit a 

 drum-like sound. 



