GLANDS. 403 



Glands of Prepuce. 



The glands of the prepuce are also remarkable for their 

 large size, as well as for the peculiar characters of the secre- 

 tion which they furnish ; one of these being its semi-solid 

 consistence ; a second, its penetrating and remarkable odour. 



MUCOUS GLANDS. 



The great agents in the secretion of mucus are the cells 

 contained in the follicles with which all compound mucous 

 membranes are furnished ; there is, nevertheless, a descrip- 

 tion of gland very generally distributed, differing anatomi- 

 cally from the follicles, also called mucous, and which is, in 

 like manner, supposed to furnish a mucous secretion. It is, 

 however, very probable that as there are structural differences 

 between the two, so are there differences in the nature of the 

 secretion elaborated by them. 



Before entering into a description of the mucous glands, 

 it will not be out of place to present to the reader the 

 results of some additional researches on the structure of 

 mucous membranes : at a former page of this work it was 

 stated that mucous membranes may be divided into simple 

 and compound according as they contain follicular involutions, 

 or are destitute of such inverted processes ; and that the com- 

 pound membranes were that of the alimentary canal from the 

 cardia downwards, of the gall bladder, and of the uterus 

 and Fallopian tubes, according to Bowman. Further observ- 

 ations have, however, shown me that on the one side the 

 mucous membranes of the mouth (including that which lines 

 its roof, which invests the tongue, and which covers the tonsils, 

 uvula, and epiglottis), of the oesophagus down to the cardia, of 

 the vagina and neck of the uterus, of the vesicula? seminales, 

 as well as the Schneiderian membrane, are also compound ; 

 while, on the other, the mucous membranes of the Eustachian 

 tubes, of the trachea, and bronchial tubes, of the bladder, 

 and of the unimpregnated uterus, and Fallopian tubes, are 

 simple mucous membranes. 



The follicles of the mouth are somewhat large, scattered, 



K K 3 



