t20 'DIGESTIVE OR&ANS. 



They have several coats or linings, the inner one 

 being red, full of plaits, and covered with little 

 eminences, termed villi, which give it a velvety 

 appearance. These villi are the beginnings of the 

 vessels which convey away the nourishing juice. 



The outer coat of the intestines is smooth and 

 shining, and always moistened by a watery fluid 

 to keep it soft, and to allow the parts to move 

 easily over each other. 



Between these two coats is another, called the 

 muscular coat. It is this which enables the intes- 

 tines to push forward their contents, and which 

 gives to them a constant motion, something like 

 that of a worm when crawling, and hence called, 

 vermicular, or peristaltic. 



Different names have been given by anatomists 

 to different parts of the intestines, and the whole 

 are divided into the large and the small. The 

 small intestines receive the food from the stomach, 

 and the useless parts are allowed to collect in the 

 large ones, till it is proper and needful that it be 

 discharged. 



The liver is another part closely connected with 

 the stomach. It is a large, dark-looking glandular 

 body, filled with veins, and makes a peculiar fluid, 

 which is of a yellowish colour, and very bitter. 

 This is bile. This fluid is collected in a little 

 bladder seated under the liver, and called the gall 

 bladder. From this it is carried by a duct into 

 the upper part of the small intestines, whfcre it is 

 mixed with the food. 



