The Coecum constitutes the first division of this portion of the intestinal canal, although some anatomists consider it as merely the head of the colon, and restrict the term coecum to a small gut which is usually described under the title of Appendix Vermiformis, and which takes its rise from the posterior part of the coecum: it is about the size of a quill, resembling, in figure and diameter, a common earth-worm: its coat contains numerous mucous glands, and its cavity, which communicates freely with that of the coecum, is usually filled with a thick mucous fluid: its use is not well understood, but it is evidently designed to supply a fluid of some kind; and if we admit that the essential parts of the digestion are completed before the aliment arrives at this part, we may fairly conclude that the object of such fluid is to lubricate the intestinal passage, and thus to facilitate the expulsion of the faeces. At its junction with the ilium, the coecum, or, according to some anatomists, the colon, exhibits a valve, formed by the production of the interior coat of the intestine, designed, according to Fallopius, to permit matters to pass forwards, but to prevent their return into the ilium.

23. These views, however, regarding the coecum, must be materially modified, if we accept the theory lately promulgated by Dr. Schultz of Berlin, on what he considers "Coecal digestion;" but of this hereafter.