ANDRONOMY. 411 



them under the present section. The salivary glands, are situated 

 behind, and below, the lower jaw ; and their office is to secrete 

 the saliva; which serves to moisten the food, during mastication, 

 and to aid the processes of deglutition, and digestion. 



The largest of all the glands is the liver ; which lies immediately 

 beneath the diaphragm, mostly on the right side of the abdomen, and 

 partly covering the stomach. It consists of three lobes ; and its use 

 is to secrete, or elaborate the bile or gall ; a greenish, bitter fluid, 

 which it forms from the blood, and discharges into the gall-bladder, 

 whence it is conveyed to the chyme in the duodenum. The pancreas, 

 called in brutes the sweetbread, is also a glandular body, situated 

 behind the stomach, and secreting the pancreatic juice; which 

 resembles saliva, and which goes with the bile, to modify the chyme, 

 and assist in the formation of chyle, for the recruiting of the blood. 

 The spleen, or milt, is a sponge-like organ, much smaller than the 

 liver, and situated below the diaphragm, on the back and left side. It 

 contains numerous blood-vessels, and its cells are usually filled with 

 blood ; from which some have supposed it to be a reservoir or safety 

 vessel for the blood ; but others regard it as subservient to digestion, 

 by occasioning an increased secretion of the gastric and pancreatic 

 juices. The kidneys, are small glands, whose office is to secrete or 

 separate superfluous and noxious fluids from the blood, and discharge 

 the same through the ureters into the bladder. If this action be 

 prevented for a long time, as by disease, the result is fatal to the 

 patient. 



We have only room remaining to speak of the Voice, which can 

 hardly be studied under any of the preceding divisions of Andronomy. 

 The voice is produced by means of air expelled from the lungs ; 

 though imperfect sounds may also be produced during inhalation. 

 Thus, the lungs serve the double purpose, of respiration, and of 

 articulation, or speech. The air vessels of the lungs, unite, on 

 leaving these viscera, in two tubes called the bronchi, which, 

 ascending, also unite, to form the trachea, or windpipe ; situated in 

 front of the oesophagus, or gullet; which is also in front of, and 

 attached to, the spinal column. The principal organ of the voice, is 

 the larynx, at the upper end of the windpipe, opening into the 

 pharynx, just behind the root of the tongue, and often causing, by 

 its size, a remarkable protuberance in the front part of the neck. 

 The larynx, owes its vocal powers to the arytsenoid cartilage; the 

 two opposite sides, or edges of which, when nearly closed together, 

 are made to vibrate, like a reed, by the air passing between them. 

 The opening which they form, is called the glottis; and the carti- 

 lage at the root of the tongue, which falls back, when we swallow, 

 and thus prevents the food from entering the windpipe, is called the 

 epiglottis. The part performed by the other organs of speech, has 

 already been alluded to, in giving the classification of articulate 

 sounds under the head of Phonology, (p. 43). 



