Il6 THE LIVER. 



ing at the pylorus, ends after many windings, by join- 

 ing the large. In an adult it is about twenty feet long 

 and an inch and a half wide. Imbedded in its mucous 

 membrane, are myriads of tiny glands, much like those of 

 the stomach in shape and arrangement, but preparing 

 a digestive liquid very different from the gastric juice. 

 This liquid is mixed with the food, as it is slowly 

 driven along by the muscles in the coat of the intestine. 

 In addition, two large glands, the liver and the pancreas, 

 pour their secretion into the small intestine near its 

 upper end. 



9. The Liver is by far the largest gland in the body. 

 It is placed in the upper part of the abdomen on the 

 right side (Fig. 2, /^, /<?'), close under the diaphragm. 

 The secretion of the liver is named bile or gall. When 

 no food is being digested in the intestine, the bile col- 

 lects in a pear-shaped bag, the gall-bladder, which lies 

 under the liver. As soon as food is sent on from the 

 stomach, the gall-bladder empties bile upon it through a 

 tube or duct which opens into the intestine about op- 

 posite D, Fig. 32. 



Fresh human bile is a yellow-brown liquid. It is much 

 like weak lye in some of its properties; and ox-bile or 

 ox-gall is occasionally used by housekeepers instead of 

 lye, for cleansing purposes, to dissolve and remove 

 grease-spots. One chief use of bile is to aid in digest- 

 ing the oily and fatty parts of our food. 



and width 1 The glands of its mucous membrane 1 Their secre- 

 tion 7 What other glands pour secretion into the small intestine 1 

 Where 1 



9. What is said of the liver 7 Its position 1 Name of its secre- 

 tion ? Where stored when not needed? How disposed of when 

 food enters the intestine? Color of bile? Why sometimes used in 

 housekeeping? Use of bile in digestion ? 



