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The sweetbread, a gland connected with the intestine of nearly all vertebrates. It is usually elongated and light-colored, and its secretion, called the pancreatic juice, is discharged, often together with the bile, into the upper part of the intestines, and is a powerful aid in digestion. See Illust. of Digestive apparatus.

The sweetbread, a gland connected with the intestine of nearly all vertebrates. It is usually elongated and light-colored, and its secretion, called the pancreatic juice, is discharged, often together with the bile, into the upper part of the intestines, and is a powerful aid in digestion. See Illust. of Digestive apparatus.

A mixed exocrine and endocrine gland situated transversely across the posterior abdominal wall in the epigastric and hypochondriac regions. The endocrine portion is comprised of the ISLETS OF LANGERHANS, while the exocrine portion is a compound acinar gland that secretes digestive enzymes.

A large fleshy gland under and behind the stomach, producing a juice that helps digestion.

Abdominal salivary gland; in animals used for food, abdominal sweetbread; an elongated lobulated gland, devoid of capsule, extending from the concavity of the duodenum to the spleen; it consists of a flattened head (caput) at the duodenal end, a curved neck (collum) and an elongated three-sided body (corpus) extending transversely across the abdomen. The tail (cauda) is the pointed left extremity of the body in contact with the spleen. The gland secretes the pancreatic juice, discharged into the intestine, and an internal secretion.

Gland at posterior wall of stomach.

A fleshy gland (commonly called the "sweetbread") situated under and behind the stomach, secreting a saliva-like fluid which assists digestion in the intestines.

The sweetbread, a gland near the stomach which secretes a fluid helpful in digestion.

A fleshy gland situated under and behind the stomach; the sweet-bread of cattle.

A compound racemose gland at the posterior abdominal wall of most vertebrates.

A gland, deeply seated in the abdomen, and lying transversely on the vertebral column, between the three curvatures of the duodenum, behind the stomach, and to the right of the spleen. Its left extremity is called_____ of the pancreas; It is smaller than the right, which is called the head. At its right portion, it has, almost always, a greater or less prolongation; called, by Winslow, and some others, the lesser pancreas, (F.) Petit pancreas, Pancreas of Aselli, Pancreas minus. The pancreas resembles the salivary glands in structure, and has been called the Abdominal Salivary Gland. It is composed of lobes and granulated lobules, distinct, and united by areolar tissue. From each of the granulations of these lobes arise the radicles of its excretory duct, which are very delicate, and united like veins. The duct itself, Ductus Pancreaticus seu Wirsungianus, Pancreatic duct, Canal or Duct of Wirsung or Wirsungs, (F.) Canal pancreatique, proceeds in a serpentine course through the substance of the organ; and when it has reached behind the second portion of the duodenum, it becomes free, and is of the size of a crow’s quill. It opens at an acute angle into the choledoch duct, or proceeds close to it, opening separately into the duodenum. The Pancreatic arteries are very numerous and small. They proceed from the coeliac, splenic, superior mesenteric, right gastro-epiploic, coronaria ventriculi, and left capsular. Its veins open into the radicles of the vena porta; and, particularly, into the splenic and lesser mesenteric. Its nerves emanate from the solar plexus, and its lymphatics pass into ganglions, to which it gives its name. The pancreas secretes the Pancreatic juice, Succus seu Liquor Pancreaticus, Lympha Pancreatis, (F.) Sue pancreatique, which resembles the saliva. When this juice is mixed with amylaceous matters, it converts them into dextrin and glucose. Its great use appears, however, to be, to emulsify fatty matters by virtue of a peculiar albuminoid principle-pancreatin- coagulable by heat or alcohol, which it contains.

A large gland below the stomach.

Syn. : abdominal salivary gland. A long, reddish, acino-tubular gland running transversely behind the stomach, about opposite the first lumbar vertebra. Its right and larger extremity, the head, lies in the curvature of the duodenum, while the left and smaller, the tail, is in contact with the spleen. Its anterior surface is covered by the stomach, its posterior is separated from the vertebral column by the aorta, the superior mesenteric vessels, and the pillars of the diaphragm, and the inferior surface rests upon the junction of the duodenum and jejunum, and on the left end of the transverse colon. It consists of a somewhat loose aggregation of lobes and lobules, which empty by canals into a central duct (the canal of Wirsung) which traverses the entire length of the gland a little nearer the upper than the lower border. The human p. as also that of many animals, has normally two ducts, the main duct or the duct of Wirsung, opening into the intestine near or in conjunction with the bile duct, while the lesser, or duct of Santorini, opens independently. It secretes the pancreatic fluid, and either has the action of modifying the blood or secretes a ferment destructive of glucose, as its extirpation is followed by glycosuria and azoturia. [Gr.]

n. [Greek] A gland in the abdomen beneath the stomach. It pours its secretion into the alimentary canal during digestion.