The first three-fourths of it is called the _colon_; the last or lowest quarter, the rectum, the discharge-pipe of the food tube.

The principal use of the colon is to suck out the remaining traces of nourishing matter from the food and the water in which it is dissolved, thus gradually drying the food-pulp down to a solid or pasty form, in which condition it collects in a large "S" shaped loop of the bowel just above the rectum, until discharged.
The Waste Materials.

By the time that the remains of the food-pulp have reached the middle of the large intestine, they have lost all their nutritive value and most of their water.

All the way down from the upper part of the small intestine they have been receiving solid waste substances poured out by the glands of the intestines; indeed, the bulk of the feces is made up of these intestinal secretions, not, as is generally supposed, of the undigested remains of the food.

Ninety-five per cent of our food is absorbed; the body-engine burns up its fuel very clean.