appendix
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The human digestive system. When food is swallowed, it is moved down the oesophagus by the action of muscles (peristalsis) into the stomach. Digestion starts in the mouth and continues in the stomach as the food is mixed with enzymes and strong acid. After several hours, the food passes to the small intestine. Here more enzymes are added and digestion is completed. After all nutrients have been absorbed, the indigestible parts pass into the large intestine and thence to the rectum. The liver has many functions, such as storing minerals and vitamins and making bile, which is stored in the gall bladder until needed for the digestion of fats. The pancreas supplies enzymes. The appendix appears to have no function in human beings.
Short, blind-ended tube attached to the caecum. It has no known function in humans, but in herbivores it may be large, containing millions of bacteria that secrete enzymes to digest grass (as no vertebrate can secrete enzymes that will digest cellulose, the main constituent of plant cell walls).
The appendix secretes antibodies into the gut and so plays a role in the body's immune system, though it is not a vital one, as patients survive perfectly well following removal of the appendix. (See appendicitis.)
appendix
| Information, additional or explanatory, added at the end of the book; a reference to the appendix is usually signalled in a footnote to the text. |
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