Mucosa of large intestine

The mucous membrane (tunica mucosa) in the cecum and colon, is pale, smooth, destitute of villi, and raised into numerous crescentic folds which correspond to the intervals between the sacculi. In the rectum it is thicker, of a darker color, more vascular, and connected loosely to the muscular coat, as in the esophagus.

As in the small intestine, the mucous membrane consists of a muscular layer, the muscularis mucosæ; a quantity of retiform tissue in which the vessels ramify; a basement membrane and epithelium which is of the columnar variety, and resembles the epithelium found in the small intestine. The mucous membrane of the large intestine presents for examination glands and solitary lymphatic nodules.

• The glands of the great intestine are minute tubular prolongations of the mucous membrane arranged perpendicularly, side by side, over its entire surface; they are longer, more numerous, and placed in much closer apposition than those of the small intestine; and they open by minute rounded orifices upon the surface, giving it a cribriform appearance. Each gland is lined by short columnar epithelium and contains numerous goblet cells.
• The solitary lymphatic nodules (noduli lymphatic solitarii) of the large intestine are most abundant in the cecum and vermiform process, but are irregularly scattered also over the rest of the intestine. They are similar to those of the small intestine.