Phys. Also occas. cecum; Pl. cæca. [L.; for intestinum cæcum; neut. of cæcus blind.]
1. The blind-gut; the first part of the large intestine, so called because it is prolonged behind the opening of the ilium into a cul-de-sac. It is present in man, most mammals and birds, and in many reptiles.
1721. in Bailey.
1727–57. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Intestine, The cæcum … has a lateral insertion into the upper end of the colon; and hangs to it like the finger of a glove.
1872. Huxley, Physiol., vi. 150. The large intestine forms a blind dilatation beyond the ileo-cæcal valve … called the cæcum.
2. With pl. cæca: Any blind tube, or tube with one end closed. The intestinal cæca are two long blind tubes connected with the upper part of the large intestine in birds; pyloric cæca, a series of blind tubes, from one to fifty in number, placed immediately behind the pyloric valve in the stomach of most fishes; also the prolongations of the stomach into the rays of star-fishes.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v. Intestinum, The fish kind have in general a great number of these cæca; they are called by the ichthyologists Intestinula cæca.
1848. Carpenter, Anim. Phys., 172. Furnished with one or more little appendages, termed cæca.
1857. Wood, Com. Obj. Sea-shore, 129. The stomach is assisted by certain supplementary stomachs which run through each ray … cæca as they are called.
1868. Duncan, Insect World, Introd. 10. The second are cæca, and larger and less numerous.
