470 A MANUAL OF ANATOMY. 



gastrohepatic and gastrosplenic omenta to the liver and 

 spleen, respectively. 



The cavity of the great omentum is also called the cavity 

 of the lesser peritoneum. It communicates with the gen- 

 eral peritoneal cavity by means of the opening to the right 

 and behind the gastrohepatic omentum, which in the foetus 

 is a very wide opening, but in the adult the primitive rela- 

 tions have become so altered that this opening will only 

 admit two fingers, and receives the name of the foramen 

 of Winslow. 



The posterior attachment of the peritoneum in the 

 foetus is, as already stated, in a straight line ; in the adult it is 

 in several lines, none of which are straight. (Diag. 39.) The 

 course in the adult that represents the primitive peritoneal 

 attachment is above, beginning with the falciform ligament of 

 the liver, through the gastrophrenic ligament of the stomach, 

 the gastrosplenic omentum (all that is left of the original 

 mesogaster), then to the attachment of the descending meso- 

 colon, the sigmoid mesentery, and the mesorectum, the 

 last coming back to the middle line in the lower part of its 

 course, all the rest lying to the left of the middle line. 

 The other adult attachments are acquired in the manner 

 already explained. They are for the small intestines and 

 the ascending and transverse colon. The mesenteric at- 

 tachment starts above to the left of the second lumbar ver- 

 tebra and passes downward to the right iliac fossa. From 

 the last point the mesentery for the ascending colon extends 

 upward to the lower border of the thorax, then turns to the 

 right, forming the transverse mesocolon. At the upper end 

 of the ascending colon a band of peritoneum passes off 

 horizontally to be attached to the lateral abdominal wall 

 between the crest of the ilium and the lower border of the 

 thorax. Upon this shelf the right extremity of the liver 



