DESCRIPTION OF THE ARTERIES 203 



The branches of the abdominal aorta : 



(a) Parietal and (b) visceral. 



THE PARIETAL BRANCHES. (1) The phrenic, (2) the 

 lumbar, (3) the middle sacral. 



THE VISCERAL BRANCHES. I. The celiac axis, i 

 inch long, divides into the gastric, hepatic, and splenic. 

 It is covered by the lesser omentum, rests below on 

 the pancreas; on each side is a semilunar ganglion and 

 on the right the lobus Spigelii, of the liver on the left 

 the stomach. 



Branches. (a) The gastric artery runs to the cardiac 

 orifice of the stomach, thence to the right, along the 

 lesser curvature, in the lesser omentum as far as the 

 pylorus. It supplies both surfaces of the stomach and 

 the esophagus, anastomosing with the splenic, hepatic, 

 and esophageal arteries. 



(6) The hepatic artery passes below the foramen of 

 Winslow to the pylorus, then ascends in the lesser 

 omentum, anterior to that foramen, and to the left 

 of the gall duct, to the transverse fissure of the liver, 

 and divides into a right and a left branch. Its pyloric 

 branch passes along the lesser curvature to meet the 

 gastric. Its cystic branch from the right division 

 ascends on the neck of the gall-bladder and supplies 

 it by two branches. The other branch of the hepatic, 

 the gastroduodenalis, divides behind the lower part 

 of the duodenum into a superior pancreaticoduodenal 

 branch, descending between the pancreas and duo- 

 denum to join the inferior artery of the same name; 

 and the right gastro-epiploica, passing into the omentum 

 toward the left, along the great curvature, to meet 

 the left. (See Fig. 82.) 



(c) The splenic runs tortuously to the left, along 

 the upper border of the pancreas, and divides near 

 the spleen into branches which enter at the hilum, 

 some passing to the stomach. 



Branches. Pancreatic, numerous, small; and one 

 larger, the pancreatica magna, accompanies the duct 

 of Wirsung. 



