Page:EB1911 - Volume 20.djvu/729

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PANCH MAHALS—PANCREAS
673

great part of its dependencies. After the presentation of the peplus, the hecatomb was sacrificed. The subject of the frieze of the Parthenon is an idealized treatment of this great procession.

The festival which had been beautified by Peisistratus was made still more imposing the rule of Pericles. He introduced a regular musical contest in place of the old recitations of the rhapsodes, which were an old standing accompaniment of the festival. This contest took place in the Odeum, originally built for this purpose by Pericles himself. The order of the agones from this time onwards was—first the musical, then the gymnastic, then the equestrian contest. Many kinds of contest, such as the chariot race of the apobatai (said to have been introduced by Erechtheus), which were not in use at Olympia, were practised in Athens. Apobates was the name given to the companion of the charioteer, who showed his skill by leaping out of his chariot and up again while the horses were going at full speed. There were in addition several minor contests: the Pyrrhic, or war dance, celebrating the victory of Athena over the giants; the Euandria, whereby a certain number of men, distinguished for height, strength and beauty, were chosen as leaders of the procession; the Lampadedromia, or torch-race; the Naumachia (Regatta), which took place on the last day of the festival. The proceedings were under the superintendence of ten athlothetae, one from each tribe, the lesser Panathenaea being managed by hieropoei. In the musical contests, a golden crown was given as first prize; in the sports, a garland of leaves from the sacred olive trees of Athena, and vases filled with oil from the same. Many specimens of these Panathenaic vases had been found; on one side is the figure of Athena, on the other a design showing the nature of the competition in which they were given as prizes. The season of the festival was the 24th to the 29th Hecatombaeon, and the great day was the 28th.

See A. Mommsen, Feste der Stadt Athen (1898); A. Michaelis, Der Parthenon (1871), with full bibliography; P. Stengel, Die griechischen Kultusaltertümer (1898); L. C. Purser in Smith’s Dictionary of Antiquities (3rd ed., 1891); L. R. Farnell, Cults of the Greek States; also article Athena and works quoted.


PANCH MAHALS (= Five Districts), a district of British India, in the northern division of Bombay. Area, 1606 sq. m., pop. (1901), 261,020, showing a decrease of 17% in the decade, owing to famine. The administrative headquarters are at Godhra, pop. (1901), 20,915. Though including Champaner, the old Hindu capital of Gujarat, now a ruin, this tract has no history of its own. It became British territory as recently as 1861, by a transfer from Sindhia; and it is the only district of Bombay proper that is administered on the non-regulation system, the collector being also political agent for Rewa Kantha. It consists of two separate parts, divided by the territory of a native state. The south-western portion is for the most part a level plain of rich soil; while the northern, although it comprises some fertile valleys, is generally rugged, undulating and barren, with but little cultivation. The mineral products comprise sandstone, granite and other kinds of building stone. Mining for manganese on a large scale has been begun by a European firm, and the iron and lead ores may possibly become profitable. Only recently has any attempt been made to conserve the extensive forest tracts, and consequently little timber of any size is to be found. The principal crops are maize, millets, rice, pulse and oilseeds; there are manufactures of lac bracelets and lacquered toys; the chief export is timber. Both portions of the district are crossed by the branch of the Bombay and Baroda railway from Anand, through Godhra and Dohad, to Ratlam; and a chord line, opened in 1904, runs from Godhra to Baroda city. The district suffered very severely from the famine of 1809-1900.


PANCREAS (Gr. πᾶν, all; κρέας, flesh), or sweetbread, in anatomy, the elongated, tongue-shaped, digestive gland, of a pinkish colour, which lies across the posterior wall of the abdomen about the level of the first lumbar vertebra behind, and of the trans pyloric plane in front (see Anatomy: Superficial and Artistic). Its right end is only a little to the right of the mid line of the abdomen and is curved down, round the superior medenteric vessels, into the form of a C^. This hook-like right end is known as the head of the pancreas, and its curvature is adapted to the concavity of the duodenum (see fig.) The first inch of the straight limb is narrower from above downward than the rest and forms the neck. This part lies just in front of the beginning of the portal vein, just below the pyloric opening of the stomach and just above the superior mesenteric vessels. The next three or four inches of the pancreas, to the left of the neck, form the body and this part lies in front of the left kidney and adrenal body, while it helps to form the posterior wall of the " stomach chamber " (see Alimentary Canal). At its left extremity the body tapers to form the tail, which usuallv touches the spleen (see Ductless Glands) just below the hilum, and above the basal triangle of that viscus where the splenic flexure of the colon is situated. On the upper border of the body, a little to the left of the mid line of the abdomen, is a convexity or hump, which is known as the tuber omentale of the pancreas, and touches the elevation (bearing the same name) on the liver.

The pancreas is altogether behind the peritoneum. In its greater part it is covered in front by the lesser sac (see Coelom and Serous Membranes), but the lower part of the front of the head and the very narrow lower surface of the body are in contact with the greater sac. There is one main duct of the pancreas, which is sometimes known as the duct of Wirsung; it is thin- walled and white, and runs the whole length of the organ nearer the back than the front. As it reaches the head it turns downward and opens into the second part of the duodenum, joining the common bile duct while they are both piercing the walls of the gut. A smaller accessory pancreatic duct is found, which communicates with the main duct and usually opens into the duodenum about three quarters of an inch above the papilla of the latter. It drains the lower part of the head, and either crosses or communicates with the duct of Wirsung to reach its opening (see A. M. Schirmer, Beitrag zur Geschichte mid Anat. des Pancreas, Basel, 1893).

The pancreas has no real capsule, but is divided up into lobules, which are merely held together by their ducts and by loose areolar tissue; the glands of which these lobules are made up are of the acino-tubular variety (see Epithelial Tissues). Small groups of epithelium-like cells without ducts (Islets of Langerhans) occur among the glandular tissue and are characteristic of the pancreas. In cases of diabetes they sometimes degenerate. In the centre of each acinus of the main glandular tissue of the pancreas are often found spindle-shaped cells (centro-acinar cells of Langerhans). For details of microscopic structure see Essentials of Histology, by E. A. Schafer (London, 1907).

Embryology. — The pancreas is developed, by three diverticula, from that part of the forcgut which will later form the duodenum. Of these diverticula the left ventral disappears early, ' but the right ventral, which is really an outgrowth from the lower part of the common bile duct, forms the head of the pancreas. The bodand tail are formed from the dorsal diverticulum, and the two parts, at first separate, join one another so that the ducts communicate, and eventually the ventral one takes almost all the secretion of the gland to the intestine, while that part of the dorsal one which is nearest the duodenum atrophies and forms the duct of Santorini. The main pancreatic duct (of Wirsung) is therefore formed partly by the ventral and partly by the dorsal diverticulum. As the diverticula grow they give off lateral branches, which branch again and again until the terminal buds form the acini of the gland. At first the pancreas grows upward, behind the stomach, between the two layers of the dorsal mcsogastrium (see Coelom AND Serous Membranes), but when the stomach and duodenum turn over to the right, the gland becomes horizontal and the opening of the right ventral diverticulum becomes more dorsal. Later, by the unequal growth of the duodenal walls, it comes to enter the gut on its left side where the papilla is permanently situated. After the turning over of the pancreas to the right '.he peritoneum is absorbed from its dorsal aspect. The islets of Langerhans are now regarded as portions of the glandular epithelium which have been isolated by the invasion and growth round them of mesenchyme (see Quain's Anatomy, vol. i., igoS).

Comparative Anatomy. — In the Acrania (Amphioxus) no representative of a pancreas has been found, but in the Cyclostomata (hags and lampreys) there is a small lobular gland opening into the bile duct which probably represents it. In the Elasmobranchs (sharks and rays) there is a definite compact pancreas of considerable size. In the Telcostomi, which include the true bony fish (Teleostei), the sturgeon and Polyterus, the pancreas is sometimes

N. W. Ingalls has shown (Archiv. f. mik. Anat. und Entu'ickl. Bd. 70, 1907), that in a human embryo of 4-9 mm. the two ventral buds persist and join one another below the liver bud.