chap, xvii.j ABDOMINAL VISCERA. 335 



conniventes can be well seen. These folds are large 

 and numerous in the jejunum, but become small and 

 scanty in the upper ileum, and are wanting in the 

 lower third of that bowel. Injuries to the jejunum 

 are more serious than are those of the ileum, since an 

 intestinal lesion is (other things being equal) the more 

 serious the nearer it approaches to the stomach. The 

 fatality of umbilical herniae probably depends in part 

 upon the fact that the contained bowel is often 

 jejunum. The coils of small intestine occupy no 

 certain position in the abdomen. In the fetus, and 

 during the earliest part of extra-uterine life, the bulk 

 of the small intestine is placed to the left of the middle 

 line. This is on account of the relatively large size 

 of the liver, to the weight of which the lesser bowel 

 no doubt acts as a counterpoise. In the majority of 

 adult bodies the small intestine is disposed in an 

 irregularly curved manner from left to right. The 

 gut, starting from the duodenum, will first occupy the 

 contiguous parts of the left side of the epigastric and 

 umbilical regions ; the coils then fill some part of the 

 left hypochondriac and lumbar regions ; they now com- 

 monly descend into the pelvis, re-appear in the left 

 iliac quarter, and then occupy in order the hypogastric, 

 lower umbilical, right lumbar, and right iliac regions. 

 Before reaching the latter situation they commonly 

 descend again into the pelvis. 



Much interest attachas to the coils of small in- 

 testine that are found in the pelvis. These are the 

 coils that are apt to become involved and adherent in 

 cases of pelvic peritonitis, and that would probably 

 form the protrusion in most cases of obturator, sciatic, 

 and pudeudal hernia. No small intestine occupies the 

 foetal pelvis. The amount found in the adult pelvis 

 depends mainly upon the state of distension of the 

 bladder and rectum, and upon the position of the 

 sigmoid flexure. The coils that are most usually 



