

110 



CHAP. VII. 



THE FUNCTION OF THE OMENTUM. 



" THE omentum gastro-colicum or magnum a (to distinguish it 

 from the parvum or hepato-gastricum b ) is a peculiar process of 

 peritonaeum, arising immediately from the external coat of the 

 stomach. 



" Although there are innumerable continuations of the peri- 

 tonaeum in the abdomen 6 , and every abdominal viscus is so covered 

 by it that on opening the abdomen nothing is found destitute of 

 that membrane, nevertheless, it is afforded in different ways, 

 which may be reduced to classes. 



" Over some the peritonaeum is merely extended as a smooth 

 membrane, or it affords to them only a partial covering, as is the 

 case with respect to the kidneys, rectum, urinary bladder, and, 

 in some measure, with respect to the pancreas and gall-bladder. 



" To some which project into the cavity of the abdomen, al- 

 though adhering to its parietes, it affords a covering for the 

 greater part of their surface ; v. c. to the liver, spleen, stomach, 

 uterus, and the testes of the very young foetus. 



" The intestinal tube, with the exception of the rectum, pro- 

 jects so much into the cavity of the abdomen, that it is, as it 

 were, suspended in loose processes of the peritonaeum, called 

 mesentery and mesocolon : the broad ligaments of the uterus are 

 similar to these. 



" The longest and most remarkable process of peritonaeum is 

 the omentum a large, empty, delicate sac, hanging from the 



* " Eustachius, tab. ix. 



Haller, Iconcs anat. fasc. i. tab. iv. K. M., and the Appendix Colica, which 

 he himself investigated at Gottingen in 1740. ib. R. 



Rob. Steph. Henry, Descript. omenti c. icone nova. Hafn. 1748. 4to." 

 b " Eustachius, tab. x. fig. 1. G. H. 

 Haller, 1. c. Q." 



" C. J. M. Langenbeck, Commentarius de structura periton<ti t &c. Gb'tt. 

 1817. 4to. with copper-plates." 



