THE PANCREAS. 58*7 



num on the right, (Fig. 180,) where it is closely attached, 

 and from which it is often with difficulty separated. Its 

 form is somewhat of a parallelogram, about seven inches in 

 length, and two in breadth. Its color is of a light gray, or 

 pink. Its structure resembles that of the salivary glands, so 

 much so that it is called the abdominal salivary gland. It 

 belongs to the conglomerate class of glands, and consists of 

 lobules of various size, which are resolvable into still smaller 

 bodies or granules, all of which are connected by cellular tis- 

 sue, with their interstices occupied by blood-vessels. This 

 gland has no proper peritoneal coat, nor investing tunic, 

 unless the lamina of condensed cellular membrane which 

 surrounds it, be considered as such. 



Its arteries come from the splenic, which courses the upper 

 margin. Its veins enter the splenic, and thence the vena 

 portas. Its nerves are from the solar plexus. 



Its excretory duct, called the ductus Wirsungii, is seen by 

 scraping off some of the surface of the gland about its cen- 

 tre, and is traced as a remarkably white and thin tube, 

 extending from the left extremity or tail of the gland, to 

 its right or head. Here it increases in size, and is some- 

 times joined by a duct from the lesser pancreas, which is only 

 an enlargement of the head. This duct, just before entering 

 the duodenum, joins the ductus communis, though it is not 

 unfrequently seen to enter separately. It arises by fine 

 radicles from the granular masses, constituting the lobules, 

 like the vesicular origins of the salivary glands. These 

 unite to form the still larger tubes which proceed from the 

 circumference to the centre, and discharge nearly at right 

 angles into the common duct. 



Function. To secrete the pancreatic fluid, which, as 

 stated elsewhere, is conveyed into the duodenum ; with the 

 bile, by their combined agency, it converts the chyme into 

 chyle. But what part this fluid takes, or what is its special 

 action in the process of chylification, all works on anatomy 

 and physiology tell us is yet unknown. This uncertainty 

 or obscurity as to the use of the pancreatic fluid, would 

 seem to be entirely removed, and the question conclusively 



