INTESTINES— LIVER— SPLEEN. 283 



compared with the stomach, yet it is easily distinguished. The 

 mucous coat is gathered into a few longitudinal folds when empty, 

 which are very marked at its commencement; but there are no 

 valvular appendages as in the human intestines. It is everywhere 

 studded with villi or little projections, like the pile of velvet, 

 through the open mouths of which the chyle is taken up, and be- 

 neath it are numerous glands named after their discoverers. 



The large intestines, as their name implies, are of much 

 greater diameter than the small; but they are not above one-third 

 of their length. Instead of being convoluted, they are puckered 

 into pouches by a peculiar arrangement of the longitudinal mus- 

 cular fibres, which are collected into bundles or cords, and being 

 shorter than the intestine, gather it up into cells. The mucous 

 membrane also has very few villi, which become more and more 

 rare towards the rectum. 



THE LIVER. 



This important organ is in close contact with the right side 

 of the diaphragm. It is of an irregular figure thick in the middle 

 and thin at the edges ; divided into three lobes ; convex on its an- 

 terior surface, where it is adapted to the concave aspect of the dia- 

 phragm ; concave posteriorly. The color is that which is so well 

 known, and peculiar to itself. It is everywhere invested by the 

 peritoneum, excepting the spaces occupied by the large veins as 

 they enter and pass out, and the coronary ligament which sus- 

 pends it, as well as the three other folds of peritoneum, which 

 have also received particular names. 



The function of the liver is doubtless chiefly of a depuratory 

 nature, but the soapy nature of the bile seems to be destined to aid 

 in dissolving the fatty materials which are contained in the food, 

 and to stimulate the intestines to perform their duties. 



THE SPLEEN. 



The spleen can scarcely be considered as a gland, inasmuch as 

 it has no excretory duct, but it contains within its substance a 

 number of little bodies, called Malpighian corpuscles, which most 

 probably perform the same office as the absorbent glands. Its 

 weight as compared with the whole body is about the same as in 

 man, whose spleen weighs six ounces, while that of the horse rarely 

 exceeds three pounds. It is attached by the lesser omentum (a 

 fold of the peritoneum) to the stomach, and occupies the left side 

 of that organ. It is covered by a serous coat continuous with the 

 peritoneum, and its internal structure is spongy, and made up of 

 cells which contain a large quantity of blood. 



The function of the spleen is not positively ascertained, but it 

 is believed to perform the office of a reservoir for the blood re- 

 quired by the stomach, with which it is closely connected by a set 



