THE LENGTH OF THE LARGE AND THE SMALL INTESTINE IN YOUNG CHILDREN

The not uncommon evidence of an unusually long large intestine disclosed by roentgen-ray examinations of the intestinal tract has evoked very little interest until recent times. Scant reference is made in the literature of the past twenty-five years to the association of such conditions with serious intestinal disturbance. Works on anatomy, as a rule, give only a usual average length for the large and small intestine in adults. The only authority listed in the Index Medicus who gives any data on intestinal measurements is Curschman, who, in 1894, published observations on the relationship between the large intestine and body lengths in adults, and described a possible correlation between unusual measurements and the intestinal symptomatology of certain cases. The observations reported in the present paper are based on measurements made at necropsy of the large intestine, small intestine and body length in 185 children, taken, for the most part, consecutively in