SIGMOID FLEXURE OF THE COLON 281 



and been determined by, embryonic development and 

 evolution. 



In the surgical and other means, therefore, had recourse 

 to in the treatment of diseases of this region, these facts, 

 we would call them, should not be overlooked, but allowed 

 to have that consideration which their importance demands, 

 and their immediate applicability entitles them to. More- 

 over, the appreciation of these facts will enable militant 

 medicine to meet the requirements of many cases on more 

 thoroughly scientific principles than have hitherto charac- 

 terised its procedure here, and so the services of surgery 

 may be obviated and its objects gained by less heroic 

 and more natural means, as well as in a more from the 

 patient's standpoint grateful manner. 



In concluding our review of the knowledge, general and 

 special, existent at the present time, or any time within the 

 past half century, we would conclude, so far as our appre- 

 ciation of such a wide subject will enable us to do, that the 

 subject of alimentation has not yet advanced in its scientific 

 appreciation to more than its elementary stage, the elements 

 composing that stage having, to a great extent, still to be 

 gathered from physiological, pathological, and clinical 

 sources, accessible only with difficulty to the general 

 enquirer ; hence, we regard it as incumbent on those in- 

 terested in such a vital subject to collect and focus all their 

 information bearing directly and indirectly on its elucida- 

 tion, in order to be enabled to deduce its fundamental 

 and specific principles, with a view to ensure the scientific 

 application of regulative and ameliorative means wherever, 

 and whenever, the necessity for their use may arise. 



We know enough, however, to warrant us in claiming 

 for the machinery of alimentation a completeness of adapta- 

 tion to its purpose as absolutely perfect as is to be found 

 throughout nature, a oneness of aim and object as com- 

 plete as structure and function can effect, and hence a 

 continuity of physiological working which it is essential at 

 all times to maintain, and, when faulty, to rectify, on lines 

 consistent with the necessity of the individual instance. 



In addition to what has been said of the special mechanical 

 adaptation of the sigmoid flexure of the large intestine to 

 fulfil the functions of an internal sphincter and faecimeter 



