2 5 o PHYSIC 



foetal life into the pharyngeal cavity, through the related 

 and continuous uvular and tonsillar structures. 



The lymph, or more fluid material, circulating within 

 the third ventricular cavity, may, to some extent, find its 

 way along the other passages and cavities leading from, or 

 communicating with, it, viz. through the foramen of 

 Munro and the aqueduct of Silvius, and, in the case of 

 obstruction to these, through the pineal gland, into the 

 sub-arachnoid and the sub-dural spaces, while the quasi- 

 solid, or less fluid, residual material, from which the term 

 pituitary is derived, remaining after the draining off of the 

 supernatant lymph, finds its way into the glandular inter- 

 stices, and passages, of the anterior portion of the hypo- 

 physis, from its posterior, or infundibular, portion, and 

 thence passes by the cranio-pharyngeal foramina, through 

 the uvular, and tonsillar, spongio-porous textures, into the 

 pharynx and oesophagus. A portion of this latter, or 

 pituitary material, also seems to percolate from the tonsils 

 into the matrix of the hinder, or posterior, portion of the 

 tongue (the truth of which is observable by all consumers 

 of the commercial article known by that name) where it 

 effects its escape, by the papillae there so prominently dis- 

 tributed ; hence, when these latter become occluded, as we 

 may suppose they do, in certain pathological conditions, we 

 find that the forward or anterior parts of that organ become 

 invaded by the retained matter, when the phenomena of 

 furred tongue," with its long familiar tell-tale features, 

 .and far-fetched stories, begin to develop in consequence ; 

 in which latter occurrence we see the operation of what may 

 be regarded as the law of "compensation," the anterior 

 excretory agencies of the tongue taking up and performing 

 the work of their posterior neighbours. A considerable, 

 if not measurable, quantity of such material must, there- 

 fore, be tipped, or discharged, into the pituitary gland, 

 calling for a never-ceasing activity of its structures and 

 associated agencies, and necessitating the continued main- 

 tenance of a fluidity of effluent, so to speak, capable of 

 securing complete patency of the oro-pharyngeal points of 

 exit. Should this excretory process in any degree fail, or 

 for any length of time lag, danger will arise from the 

 accumulation of undealt with material, both to the integrity 



