MUCUS that mingles with the bile.
The hepatic duct is continued in R straight course from the liver to the duo denum, in which it opens. It pasies, how. ever, in an oblique manner, between thp coats of the intestine, before opening into its cavity. Hence the contents of the in testine cannot enter the duct ; and the more fully the intestine is distended, the more cotnpletely is this prevented by the compression of the duct between the in testinal tunics. The neck of the gall bladder is gradually contracted into a small tube, called the cystic duct, which joins the hepatic at an acute angle, after first running parallel with it. The re maihder of the hepatic •duct, after the junction with the cystic, is often called the ductus commums choledochus. The surface of the cystic ddt, as well a.s that of the neck of the gall-bladder, has nu merous small folds of the internal mem brane, which must retard and obstruct the course of the bile.
a gland of the conglome rate kind ; that is, composed of numerous minute portions, united by cellular sub stance. It connected by one cnd to the commencement of th e duodenum, and ex tends across the vertebrm,behind the less er arch of the stomach, to the spleen.
Its length is aboqt siminches ; its breadth one and a half; affd its thickness half au inch.
Each of the small molecules which com. pose this gland has an excretory duct ; ttiese unite together into larger and larger trunks, and the main tube of all runs along the eentre of the gland, and joins the ductus communis choledochits just before thakluct opens into the duodenum.
igNeen.—This part, which in common language is called the milt, is a soft and livid mass, interposed between the great end of the stomach and tke diaphragm. It weighs about six or seven ounces. It consists of a congeries of cells filled witlt blood, as the arteries and veins of the organ communicate with them. It is closely connected to the great end of the stomach by vascular ramifications, which the splenic vessels send to the stomach. It has a concave and convex surface; an anterior and posterior extremity; and an external peritoneal covering.