CHAPTER XI 

 THE ORGANS OF DIGESTION 



THE digestive apparatus for the digestion of the food 

 we eat consists of the alimentary canal and accessory 

 organs. 



The alimentary canal is a musculomembranous 

 tube, about thirty feet in length, extending from the 

 mouth to the anus, and lined by mucous membrane 

 throughout the entire length. 



It is divided in different parts according to the 

 mechanical or chemical changes taking place during 

 the various stages of digestion: as the mouth, where 

 the teeth, tongue, and salivary glands perform the act 

 of mastication and insalivation; the pharynx and 

 esophagus, which receive, force, and convey the food 

 to the stomach, as in the act of swallowing or degluti- 

 tion; the stomach, in which the chief chemical changes 

 occur and the food is reduced to a semiliquid condition, 

 to be passed on to the small intestines; the small 

 intestines, where it is acted upon by the bile, pan- 

 creatic and intestinal juices which separate and 

 render absorbable the nutritive material; the large 

 intestines, to which that portion of the food which 

 is unabsorbable moves on to pass out through the 

 rectum and anus as feces or waste particles. 



The accessory organs of digestion are: the teeth, 

 tongue, salivary glands parotid, submaxillary, and 

 sublingual the liver and pancreas. 



