OF THE INTESTINES. 117 



of fibres from the muscular coat also. Hence it performs the 

 double office of preventing the passage of too great a quantity 

 of faeces into the large intestines, and regurgitation into the 

 small." 



a, ileum. 



b, caecum. 



c, colon. 



d, valve. 



It probably always prevents regurgitation even of air, while 

 entire : and the contents of the ileum are so often seen faecal in 

 dissection, that stercoraceous vomiting is no argument that the 

 valve occasionally allows retrogression of the intestinal contents. 



" The large intestines, divided like the small into three parts, 

 commence by the ccecum (which has a vermiform process whose 

 use in man is unknown x ), and afford a very ample receptacle, in 

 which the faeces may be collected and retained, till an opportunity 

 for discharging them arrives. 



" They exceed the small intestines in thickness and strength, 

 as well as in capacity. The muscular coat has this peculiarity 

 that its longitudinal fibres, excepting at the extremity of the 

 rectum, are collected into three bands, called ligaments of the 

 colon y ; and the intestines themselves are divided into a kind of 

 bulbous segments. The inner coat is not so beautifully floc- 

 culent as that of the small intestines, but more similar to that of 

 the stomach. 



u New Views of the Process of Defecation, #c. By James O'Beirne, M.D. 

 Dublin, 1833, p. 16. sq. 



x " Lieberkiihn, De valvula collet usu processus vermicularis. LB. 1739. 4to. 



Joach. Vosse, De intestino cceco ejusque appendice vermiformi. Getting. 1 749. 

 4to." 



y " Eustachius, tab, x. fig. 2. 4, 5." 



