CHAPTER VIII 



INTESTINAL DIGESTION 



106. The intestine. The part of the alimentary canal 

 below the stomach is called the intestine. The intestine is 

 a tube of varying size, 



whose different parts 

 have different names. 

 Next to the stomach 

 is the small intestine, 

 which is about one 

 inch in diameter and 

 about twenty feet in 

 length. It opens into 

 the large intestine, 

 which is about two 

 inches in diameter and 

 five feet in length. 



107. The small in- 

 testine. The small 



intestine is very movable, and is coiled in the abdomen in 

 no definite order. It is held in place by a fanlike fold of 

 peritoneum, called the mesentery. The mesentery is about 

 four inches in length along its back edge, which is fastened 

 to the spinal column, and twenty feet at its outer edge, to 

 which the intestine is attached. Its breadth from the spinal 

 column to the intestine is about four inches. 



79 



j\ 



Diagram representing a cross section of th& 

 small intestine, showing the three layers, and 

 the way in which the blood tubes pass be- 

 tween the two folds of serous membrane (the 

 peritoneum) which forms the mesentery. 



