150 PHYSIOLOGY 



a child a week old, 1 foot 4 inches in length, the small intestines 

 measured 13 feet 2 inches, which is 9*25 times the length of the child ; 

 and the great intestines measured 1 foot 8 inches : so that the whole 

 length of the intestines was 15 feet, heing ten times the length of the 

 child. 



In another child, 1 foot 9 inches long, the small intestines'were 13 

 feet, and the great 1 foot 8 inches, which makes the whole 7*99 times 

 the length of the child. 



In a third child, the intestinal canal was 7*28 times the length of 

 the body. 



These three had [each] their ' appendix caeci ' 2 inches long. 



In a child that was 3 feet 1 inch long, the small intestines were 20 

 feet 1 inch long, the large intestines 3 feet ; being 7*12 times the 

 length of the body. 



In a man that was 5 feet 7 inches long, the small intestines were 

 25 feet 9 inches, the large intestines 5 feet 2 inches, the whole 30 

 feet 11 inches ; which comes to 5-53 times the length of the body. 



In another man of 5 feet [in stature], the small intestines were 23 

 feet, the large 4 feet, the whole being 27 feet ; which is 5*4 times 

 the length of the body 1 . 



Of Air in the Bowels. 

 Much air in the stomach and bowels is a sure sign that these bowels 

 are weak. It first shows a bad digestion, the food running too much 

 into the putrefactive kind ; and it shows that they are not able to 

 expel it when let loose ; for air is much more difficult to expel than 

 common faeces. This we see to be the case in the guts out of the body, 

 for it requires closer squeezing .to expel the air than the other contents. 

 It will regurgitate if the intestine is not held tight ; so that if the guts 

 are not able to contract upon the faeces so as to shut up the passage 

 entirely, it will be impossible to expel the air. In people that die in 

 full health, we find little air in the intestines ; and what there is, 

 is found in the ileum, which is the weakest intestine. 



Of Excrements. 



The excrements would seem to be made up of the parts of our food 



that do not animalize, of the parts that are changed in the digestive 



process but not annualized, of the parts that are not digestible, of the 



parts that the lacteals have not taken up, that are or may be animalized, 



1 [In comparing the relative length of intestinal canal to body in the human and 

 lower animals, the length from vertex to vent should be the measure taken for the 

 body in man ; whereas the lower limbs are included, as in the instance in the text,] 



