THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM. 77 



from the stomach before it is prepared to enter the 

 intestines, which is a form of indigestion which soon 

 destroys life. 



The Liver, as the manikin shows, is a 

 the i!iver very large organ overlying the stomach. 



It weighs from three to four pounds. 

 It is both a blood-purifying and a secretory organ. 

 As a secreting organ, it performs its part in the 

 process of digestion by furnishing a substance called 

 bile, which it sends through a duct or tube into the 

 duodenum, or upper part of the small intestines, 

 where it aids in further change of the chyme 

 which has just passed into the intestines from 

 the stomach. 



Back of the stomach lies the pancreas 



^an^eL 1 . 116 ( 59 )' S r g an furnish es a fluid 



called the pancreatic juice, which is also 

 brought into the duodenum. The action of the bile, 

 the pancreatic fluid and the intestinal juice, is to 

 change the chyme into chyle, and to separate the 

 useless or waste portion of the food. This waste 

 portion is carried out of the body by way of the 

 intestines, and the useful portion, having undergone 

 all the processes of digestion, is now ready to be 

 given to the circulatory system for transportation 

 to every point of demand. How the chyle is trans- 

 ferred from the digestive organs into the blood will 

 be shown in the next chapter. 



