ABDOMINAL CAVITY 461 



nerve ; trace its branches along the wall of the stomach and towards the 

 spleen. Finally clean the crura of the diaphragm to the level of the orifice 

 through which the oesophagus enters the abdomen. 



When the dissection is completed the dissector is in a position to study 

 the cceliac artery and its branches, the blood supply of the stomach, and 

 the bed of the stomach. 



Arteria Coeliaca (O.T. Cceliac Axis). The cceliac artery is 

 a short, wide vessel, which springs from the front of the aorta, 

 between the two crura of the diaphragm, immediately above 

 the upper margin of the pancreas. It is directed horizontally 

 forwards, and, after a course of little more than half an inch, 

 divides into three large branches, viz. (i) the left gastric; 



FIG. 177. The Cceliac Artery and its branches. 



(2) the hepatic ; and (3) the splenic, which radiate from each 

 other like the spokes of a wheel. The cceliac artery is 

 surrounded by a thick, matted plexus of nerves, called the 

 cosliac plexus^ which sends numerous nerve twigs with the 

 three branches of the artery. 



Arteria Gastrica Sinistra (O.T. Coronary Artery). This, 

 the smallest of the three branches of the cceliac artery, 

 proceeds upwards and to the left, behind the omental bursa 

 and through the left pancreatico-gastric fold, to the cesophageal 

 opening of the stomach, where it changes its direction, enters 

 between the two layers of the lesser omentum, and runs, 

 from above downwards and to the right, along the lesser 

 curvature of the stomach. Near the pylorus it ends by 



