SECT. 132.] ORAL MUCOUS GLANDS. 279 



Of the Glands of the Oral Cavity. 



1.— MUCOUS GLANDS. 



§ 132. The mucous glands of the oral cavity are yellowish or 

 whitish racemose glands, mostly of a roitnded form, and with a 

 botryoidal surface. They measure x "' to 2'" in magnitude, and 

 heing generally situated immediately beneath or on the attached 

 surface of the mucous membrane, open by short straight excretory 

 ducts into the oral cavity, and furnish a mucous secretion. They 

 present somewhat different characters according to situation, and 

 are also designated with different names. 



1. The labial glands lie between the muscular layer and the 

 mucous membrane in large numbers; they are \'" to i\'" in size, 

 and form around the opening of the mouth an almost continuous 

 glandular ring, which begins at a distance of 3'" from the red 

 border of the lip, and is about J" in breadth. 



2. The buccal glands are tolerably numerous but smaller, and 

 are situated further outwards, covered by the buccinator. Some 

 larger glands are found upon the buccinator, at the opening of the 

 parotid duct, and still further backwards, in the region of the last 

 molar tooth {glandules molares). 



3. The palatine glands. — Those of the hard palate are smaller, 

 and scarcely extend to the anterior half: whilst, on the contrary, 

 the glands on the under side of the soft palate form a thick glan- 

 dular layer, which is 3'" to 4'" thick anteriorly, but decreases 

 somewhat towards the free border and the uvula. Glands are also 

 present upon the posterior surface of the soft palate, but they are 

 much smaller, and do not form a continuous layer. 



4. The glands of the tongue (glandulce linguales) — These I dis- 

 tinguish into — 



a. The mucous glands of the root. — They partly form a very 

 thick stratum of glands, of £'" to 2'", situated beneath the simple 

 mucous follicles of the root of the tongue, to be afterwards de- 

 scribed, and the pajrilla circumcattata. In the former situation, 

 this glandular layer reaches a thickness of 4'", and extends 

 almost continuously from one tonsil to the other. In front of 

 the foramen ccecum these glands are smaller and more scanty, 

 still a few are met with, even in front of the most anterior papilla? 

 circumv allatce, more or less deeply buried in the muscular sub- 

 stance, but never in the anterior half of the tongue. These 

 glands are traversed by the terminations of the genio-glossus, and. 



