TEE roSTERIOR AORTA. 615 



viscus, tlie other on its posterior wall. These vessels inosculate with those sent 

 to the membranes of the stomach by the proper gastric artery (Fig. 3G5, 8). 



(3) Posterior or omental twigs of little importance, destined for the great 

 omentum (Fig. 365, 9). 



Left gastro-omental artery (Fig. 365, 10).— This artery follows the great 

 curvature of the stomach to a distance varying with the state of repletion of 

 that viscus, passing between the two layers of the omentum, aud inosculating 

 with the right gastro-omental artery. The branches it sends off on its track are 

 descending or omental, and ascending or gastric; the latter being disposed 

 exactly like the analogous branches emanating directly from the splenic 

 artery. 



3. Hepatic Artery (Fig. 365, 11). — AppHed to the superior face of the 

 pancreas, and encrusted, as it were, in the tissue of that gland — the anterior 

 border of which it follows — the hepatic artery is directed from left to right, 

 passes under the posterior vena cava, which it crosses obliquely, reaches the 

 posterior fissure of the liver {foramen of Window), and enters it with the vena 

 portae to break up into several branches, the ultimate divisions carrying nutrient 

 blood to the lobules of the liver. 



Before reaching that organ, however, the hepatic artery furnishes the 

 pancreatic branches, the pyloric artery, and the right gastro-omental artery. 



Pancreatic arteries. — Irregular and very numerous, these branches are 

 detached from the hepatic artery on its passage over the superior face of the 

 pancreas, and plunge into the tissue of that gland, the arterial blood of which 

 is chiefly derived from this source. 



Pyloric artery. — This vessel arises at the dilatation towards the origin of the 

 duodenum, before the hepatic artery enters the posterior fissure of the liver, and 

 most fre(|ueutly by a trunk common to it and the right gastro-omental artery. 

 It passes towards the small curvature of the stomach, and sends off branches 

 around the pylorus, which anastomose with the posterior gastric arteries aud the 

 right gastro-omental artery. 



Right gastro-omental artery {gastro-epiploica dextra) (Fig. 365, 13). — This 

 artery crosses the duodenal dilatation inferiorly and posteriorly, to place itself 

 in the substance of the great omentum ; in doing which it passes along the 

 large curvature of the stomach, and anastomoses by inosculation with the left 

 gastro-omental artery. In its course, it throws off omental and gastric branches, 

 which are analogous to those emanating from the latter vessel. Before crossing 

 the duodenum, it also emits a particular branch, designated in treatises on 

 Veterinary Anatomy the duodenal artery; this is a somewhat considerable 

 division, which follows the small curvature of the duodenum in the substance of 

 the mesentery, and joins the first artery belonging to the left fasciculus of the 

 great mesenteric, after furnishing some twigs to the pancreas, and numerous 

 branches to the duodenum (Fig. 365, 14). 



In terminating the description of the right gastro-omental artery, it may be 

 remarked that the stomach— owing to the anastomoses uniting that vessel with 

 the artery of the left side — is suspended, as it were, in a vertical arterial circle, 

 formed by the splenic and left gastro-omental arteries on the one part, and the 

 hepatic and right gastro-omental arteries on the other — a circle the concavity of 

 which sends out on the stomach a great number of divisions that communicate 

 with the arterial ramuscules proper to that viscus. 



