CECUM. 807 



the portal system. The lymphatic vessels of the small intes- 

 tine are distinctively known as the lacteal vessels, and they 

 convey away the chyle absorbed by the medium of the villi. The 

 nerves are from the solar plexus. The vessels and nerves gain 

 or leave the small intestine by passing between the two folds of 

 peritoneum which form the mesentery. 



In the duodenum the chyme becomes saturated with the bile 

 and pancreatic juice, the change thus induced being termed 

 chylification or conversion of the chyme into chyle. In the rest 

 of the intestine we note the absorption of the chyle by the lacteals, 

 the final preparation of the food by the various gland secretions, 

 and the reabsorption of the bile by the blood-vessels. Chyle is a 

 milky-looking fluid, its turbidity being due to the presence of an 

 immense number of minute granules. It contains also the chyle 





Fig. 



A, Microscopic appearance of a drop of chyle from the 

 ttioracic duct ; a, Granular base ; b, Fatty particles ; c, 

 Chyle corpuscles ; B, Isolated corpuscles showing the cell- 

 membrane in its developing stages, ah cd. 



corpuscles, which are nucleated sacs resembling those of the 

 lymph, or the colourless corpuscles of the blood. 



LARGE INTESTINE. 



The large intestine extends from the termination of the ileum 

 to the anus, and may be regarded as consisting of four parts, 

 which will be described in order : the Caecum, the Great colon, 

 the Floating colon, and the Rectum. 



CECUM. 



The cascum, blind intestine, or caput ccecwm coli, is a large 

 cul-de-sac, commencing in the right iliac region,, passing obliquely 

 downwards and forwards, and terminating in the left hypochon- 

 driac region by a pointed, blind extremity ; thus it crosses 



