The Cceliac Axis may be exposed by either of the following methods: the liver may be drawn upwards and the stomach downwards; by this means the gastro-hepatic or lesser omentum which connects them, will be brought into view: the anterior layer of this portion of the peritoneum being divided with caution near the pyloric end of the stomach, the hepatic vessels will be exposed, and the hepatic artery, by this dissection, may be easily traced to its origin. The cceliac axis may be also exposed by turning up the stomach together with the liver, and by tearing through the transverse mesocolon so as to arrive at the back part of the gastro-hepatic omentum. This artery arises opposite the body of the twelfth dorsal vertebra, and takes a direction downwards, forwards, and more frequently to the left than to the right side. After a course of about half an inch, it terminates by dividing into the gastric, hepatic, and splenic arteries. The cceliac axis has the superior margin of the pancreas beneath it, and this gland is frequently notched by the artery in this situation: on its sides are the crura of the diaphragm, and the semilunar ganglia, which unite both above and below the artery, so as to form a nervous collar around its origin, from which streams forth a tube of nervous filaments, forming the solar plexus, which surrounds the artery. In front of this artery we find the lesser omentum; the Spigelian lobe of the liver lies above and to its right side.

The branches given off by the cceliac axis are the following :—

Gastric, or Coronaria Ventriculi.

Hepatic. Splenic.