266 



PHYSIOLOGY 



CHAP. 



are large valvulae conniventes and the villi are long and very 

 numerous. The visible surface of measurement of the small 



FIG. 87. Cross - section of a villus of cat's intestine. Highly magnified. (E. A. Schiifer.) 

 e, columnar epithelium ; g, goblet-cell with mucus partly exuded ; I, lymph-corpuscles between 

 the epithelium cells ; 6, basement-membrane ; c, blood corpuscles ; m, section of plain muscular 

 fibres ; cl, central lacteal. 



intestine extends in the adult to some half a square metre. But 



the many folds of the valvulae con- 

 niventes, and extensive inflexions and 

 projections of the mucous coat of the 

 villi, increase the true surface of this 

 part of the mucous membrane to 

 about 10 square metres. The chyme 

 is distributed over this vast absorbing 

 surface, so that absorption the main 

 function of the epithelium that clothes 

 the villi as well as the solitary and 

 agminated glands scattered over the 

 small intestine is greatly facilitated. 

 The villi, as the chief organs of 

 absorption, claim special attention. 

 They vary in length from G'5-0'7 mm., 

 are larger and more numerous in the 

 duodenum and jejunum, and diminish 

 in size and number in the ileum. 

 to Krause, each square 

 millimetre of the jejunum contains 

 of the ileum 8-14. On the 

 basis of this calculation the total 

 number of villi in the whole of the 

 small intestine may be taken as four 

 to five millions, and each square centimetre of the apparent surface 

 of the intestine gains about twenty-three times in area from the 



FIG. 88. Injected lacteal vessels in two 

 villi of human intestine. (Teichmann.) 

 100 diameters. The lacteals are filled AppnrrHncr 

 with white substance ; the blood- ^ iAAjU1L IU 5 

 vessels with dark, a, b, lacteals, single 

 in one villus, double in the other ; -i A -i Q 

 c, horizontal lacteals, communicating lU-lo, 

 with those of the villi; d, blood- 

 vessels which consist of small arteries 

 and veins with capillary network 

 between. 



