Sections: Prologue | Before Lewis & Clark | Lewis & Clark | After Lewis & Clark When Thomas Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark into the West, he patterned their mission on the methods of Enlightenment science: to observe, collect, document, and classify.
Partially digested food, or chyme, from the stomach is mixed with bile from the liver and pancreatic juice from the pancreas to complete its digestion in the duodenum. The jejunum is the middle section of the small intestine that serves as the primary site of nutrient absorption. It measures around 3 feet in length. The ileum is the final section of the small intestine that empties into the large intestine via the ileocecal sphincter.
The small intestine can be divided into 3 major regions: The duodenum is the first section of intestine that connects to the pyloric sphincter of the stomach. It is the shortest region of the small intestine, measuring only about 10 inches in length.