‖Cæ″cum (?), n.; pl.Cæcums, L. Cæca (#). [L. caecus blind, invisible, concealed.] (Anat.) (a) A cavity open at one end, as the blind end of a canal or duct. (b) The blind part of the large intestine beyond the entrance of the small intestine; — called also the blind gut.
☞ The cæcum is comparatively small in man, and ends in a slender portion, the vermiform appendix; but in herbivorous mammals it is often as large as the rest of the large intestine. In fishes there are often numerous intestinal cæca.