In the other case the distance from the tip of the caecum to the splenic flexure was 27", the great omentum commencing 5" from the former point. The descending colon was of normal length. In both bodies the remaining viscera were normal. 2. The caecum next descends ventrad of right kidney to the iliac fossa. The future ascending colon is at this time placed very obliquely on account of the large size of the foetal liver, and passes without a marked angle into the transverse segment. Thus in Fig. 148, from a foetus 5" in length, the descending colon is vertical and the splenic flexure well marked, forming the highest point of the colic arch. There is no hepatic flexure, and no ascending and transverse colon, but instead of these an oblique segment passing upwards and to the left between caecum and splenic flexure. [Illustration: FIG. 148.--Abdominal viscera of human foetus of 12.5 cm., vertex-coccygeal measure, hardened _in situ_; transverse and ascending colon not yet differentiated. (Columbia University Museum, No. 1815.) Natural size.] This disposition, due to the large size of the liver, is still marked at times in the foetus at term, and occasionally even in children up to 2 or 3 years of age. 3. The ascending colon is subsequently differentiated from the transverse segment and the hepatic flexure formed consequent upon the diminution of the relative size of the liver, which permits the foetal oblique segment of the colon extending in the earlier stages between the right iliac fossa and the spleen to become divided by a right-angled (hepatic) bend or flexure into an ascending and a transverse segment (Fig. 149). [Illustration: FIG. 149.--Abdominal viscera of human foetus at term, hardened _in situ_; hepatic flexure formed and ascending and transverse colon differentiated. (Columbia University Museum, No. 1816.)] 4. The splenic flexure develops early and is well marked. It indicates the point of transition of the original ascending limb of the umbilical loop into the remaining vertical median segment of the large intestine, from which the descending colon is formed. In the adult the ascending and descending portions of the colon are vertical. The transverse colon is not quite horizontal since the splenic flexure is higher and placed more dorsally than the hepatic flexure. In the embryo the rapidly-growing coils of the small intestine push the descending colon to the left and dorsad into close contact with the dorsal abdominal wall. A small bend which appears about the middle of the third month in the left iliac fossa indicates the rudiment of the future sigmoid flexure or omega loop. The rest of the endgut follows the body wall in a well-marked curve, whose termination lies within the concavity of the caudal portion of the embryo (Fig. 150). From this terminal part the rectum develops after the division of the cloaca and the union of the proctodaeum with the entodermal intestinal pouch has taken place as detailed above.