BLOOD SUPPLY OF THE LARGE INTESTINE

HISTORICAL The historical background for the blood supply of the colon does not extend beyond Galen 1 (131-201 A.D.), as he was the first to describe arteries as carriers of blood. However great Galen's services may have been to medicine in his day, his influence in the long run was retrogressive. Philosophy was an integral part of the learning of every scholar of his time, and philosophic beliefs and concepts were inextricably mingled with scientific facts. Galen might have discovered many more anatomic and physiologic facts had he not hidden science behind a screen of theory regarding the spirits of the body. Bodily functions were ascribed to the agency of these spirits, and research was abandoned when the spirits entered. One result of this philosophic belief is evidenced in Galen's anatomic diagrams, 2 which show vessels coursing vaguely from intestine to liver, but nothing definite and clearcut. In the following