. The cyclopædia of anatomy and physiology. Anatomy; Physiology; Zoology. 3iO STOMACH AND INTESTINE. (Lai. Intestinum tenue,fr Intestin grele,Germ. Duenndarm"). The shape of all this portion is cylindrical. Its average length is about 20 feet; its dia- meter about 1^ inches.* But apart from those varieties in its dimensions which it presents in different individuals, the yielding nature of the tube allows it to be narrowed by artificial extension. While, vice versa, it is just as easily shortened by dilatation. And it is very difficult accurately to estimate those minor degrees of distent
. The cyclopædia of anatomy and physiology. Anatomy; Physiology; Zoology. 3iO STOMACH AND INTESTINE. (Lai. Intestinum tenue,fr Intestin grele,Germ. Duenndarm"). The shape of all this portion is cylindrical. Its average length is about 20 feet; its dia- meter about 1^ inches.* But apart from those varieties in its dimensions which it presents in different individuals, the yielding nature of the tube allows it to be narrowed by artificial extension. While, vice versa, it is just as easily shortened by dilatation. And it is very difficult accurately to estimate those minor degrees of distention to which it is liable. Hence little stress can be laid upon the statement of Cruveilhier, that the small intestine tapers away from the duodenum to near its extremity, where it suddenly dilates to enter the large intestine. The small intestine occupies the cavity of the belly. Its commencement, at the pyloric extremity of the stomach, is placed in the right hypochondrium; its termination, in the caecum that begins the large intestine, occu- pies the right iliac fossa, to which this part of the intestinal canal is fixed. The few inches of bowel immediately above this extremity frequently occupy the pelvic cavity. But almost all the intervening portion is so free to move, that each particular point of its length may be found in any part of the ab- domen or pelvis. * Trustworthy observations on this point are still to be desired. Meckel states that the length of the whole intestine is from three to ten times the stature. And most authors have been content to fol- low him in estimating its average proportion as six times the height of the body. As 1 presume such a comparison of the two measurements was never in- tended to be more than an aid to the memory of the Anthropotomist, I need scarcely point out its in- herent improbability, as well as the difficulty of establishing a close ratio between a multiple assumed to be so high, and a multiplicand known to be so variable. Besi
Size: 1819px × 1373px
Photo credit: © Central Historic Books / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bo, booksubjectanatomy, booksubjectphysiology, booksubjectzoology
