The following fact was more extraordinary: it is related by M. Noiret. A
hound swallowed a bone, which rested in the superior part of the
oesophagus, behind the pharynx, and caused the most violent efforts to
get rid of it. The only means by which it could be made to descend into
the stomach was by pushing it with the handle of a fork, which, escaping
from the hand of the operator, followed the bone into the stomach. Two
months afterwards, on examining the stomach, the fork was plainly felt
lying in a longitudinal direction, parallel with the position of the
body; the owner of the dog wishing mechanically to accelerate the
expulsion of this body, endeavoured to push it backwards with his hands.
When it was drawn as far back as possible, he inserted two fingers into
the anus, and succeeded in getting hold of the handle, which he drew out
nearly an inch; but, in order to be enabled fully to effect his object,
it was necessary to make an incision into the rectum, and free the
substance from every obstacle that could retain it. This he did not
venture to do, and he was therefore compelled to allow the fork to pass
back into its former position.
About three months after the accident, M. Noiret made an incision, three
inches from above to below, and the same from the front backwards. He
also made an incision through the muscular tissue. Having arrived at the
peritoneum, he made another incision, through which he drew from the
abdomen a part of the floating portion of the large intestines, and
introduced his fingers into the abdominal cavity. He seized the handle
of the fork, which was among the viscera, and free about half-way down,
and drew it carefully towards the opening made in the flank. The other
half of the fork was found to be closely enveloped by the origin of the
mesocolon, which was red, hard, and inflamed. The operator freed it by
cutting through the tissues which held the fork, and then drew it easily
out. The animal was submitted to a proper course of treatment, and in
three weeks afterwards was perfectly cured.
The food, having been converted into chyme by the digestive power of the
stomach, soon undergoes another and very important change. It, or a
portion of it, is converted into chyle. It is mixed with the bile and a
secretion from the pancreas in the duodenum. The white thick liquid is
separated, and contains the nutritive part of the food, and a yellow
pulpy substance is gradually changed into excrement. As these substances
pass on, the separation between them becomes more and more complete. The
chyle is gradually taken up by the lacteals, and the excrement alone
remains.
The next of the small intestines is the 'jejunum', so called from its
being generally empty. It is smaller in bulk than the duodenum, and the
chyme passes rapidly through it.
Next in the list is the 'ileum'; but it is difficult to say where the
jejunum terminates and the ileum commences, except that the latter is
usually one-fifth longer than the former.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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