490 THE PHARYNX. 



extending upwards, on the left side over the front surface of 

 the larynx, to be attached by ligamentous fibres to the os 

 hyoides. A small muscle called the levator glandule thyroideae, 

 has been described by Duverney, Soemmering and others, run- 

 ning down from the os hyoides in front of the larynx to the 

 upper part of the isthmus of the gland. According to Professor 

 Homer, its existence is verv. rare, with which opinion my own 

 more limited observation coincides. 



The lobes of the gland are composed of smaller lobules, and 

 the spongy structure of the latter, is filled with a yellowish and 

 somewhat oily fluid. Of the uses of this gland nothing positively 

 is known. Its importance in the system of the adult cannot 

 be great, as its removal by extirpation, which has been many 

 times practised, has not appeared to leave any functional lesion 

 in the economy. 



Of the Pharynx. 



The pharynx is a large muscular bag, which forms the great 

 cavity behind the nose and mouth that terminates in the 

 oesophagus. 



It has been compared to a funnel, of which the oesophagus 

 is the pipe ; but it differs from a funnel in this respect, that it is 

 incomplete in front, at the part occupied by the nose and mouth 

 and larynx. 



It is connected above, to the cuneiform process of the 

 occipital bone, to the pterygoid processes of the sphenoidal, 

 and to both the upper and lower maxillary bones. It is in 

 contact with the cervical vertebrae behind ; and, opposite to the 

 cricoid cartilage, it terminates in the oesophagus. 



If the pharynx and oesophagus be carefully dissected and 

 detached from the vertebrae, preserving the connexion of the 

 pharynx with the head, and the head then be separated from 

 the body, by dividing the articulation of the atlas and the os 

 occipitis, and cutting through the soft parts below the larynx, 

 the resemblance to a funnel will be very obvious. 



In this situation, if an incision be made from above down- 

 wards through the whole extent of the posterior part of the 



