219. CHAPTER X. THE PANCREAS.
HEISTER. "The pancreas is a large, flat gland, for the most part of a fleshy color, situated behind the stomach, and reaching from the duodenum transversely towards the spleen. It is connected with the duodenum, with the mesentery, splenic vessels, and spleen. In man it is a single organ, but in the dog and cat it is divided, as it were, into two parts. It is eight or nine inches long; about two finger-breadths, or two and a half, broad; about one finger-breadth thick; and about three ounces in weight. In man, it has something of the shape of a dog's tongue; it is broadest near the duodenum, and gets gradually narrower towards the spleen. It is surrounded with a membrane which is continuous with the peritonieum. Its substance is glaudular; formed by a conglomeration of many lesser parts. Its arteries arise from the emliac and splenic arteries, and its veins from the splenic vein: its nerves are from the par vagum and intercostal nerve. Whether it has lymphatics or not, is uncertain.
"The pancreas has an excretory duct, composed of a number of lesser ducts. This duct was first discovered in a turkey, by Maurice Hoffmann, at Padua, in 1641; and afterwards it was found by Wirsungus, a Bavarian, in the human body; as T. Bartholin, who was present, informs us. It is commonly single in the human body; sometimes, however, there are two ducts; this is always the case in the goose, the duck, the African fowl, and the pheasant; and there are three pancreatic ducts in the common fowl, the pigeon, the eagle, and company. It is situated in the middle of the pancreas, where it resembles au empty vein, of about the calibre of a thin straw. It terminates in the duodenum by an oblique aperture, four or five finger-breadths below the pylorus, usually at the same orifice with the ductus cholidochus; but sometimes it has a double aperture. In many animals it is inserted into the duodenum by a particular orifice, at a considerable distance below the cholidochus. The use of the pancreas is, to secrete a peculiar fluid, called pancreatic juice; which is of a salivary nature, and serves to attenuate the chyle." (Comp. Anat., n. 216.)
