pancreatic duct runs the whole length of the gland from left to right and conveys the pancreatic juice from various little glands in the substance of the organ to the duodenum, into which it empties along with the common bile duct by a common orifice. The arteries are from the celiac axis and superior mesenteric, the veins belong to the portal system, and the nerves come from the solar plexus.
Surgically the pancreas is of no special importance, though acute pancreatitis does occasionally occur and is a very serious condition and one hard to diagnose.
The Spleen.—The largest and most important of the ductless glands is the spleen, an oblong, flattened organ lying deep in the left hypochondriac region between the stomach and diaphragm above the descending colon, and corresponding to the ninth, tenth, and eleventh ribs. It is soft, brittle, and very vascular. Its artery is a branch of the celiac axis and the vein belongs to the portal system. Its nerves are the pneumogastric and branches from the solar plexus. The function is not well understood but probably it is connected with or related to the vascular system in some way. Perhaps it manufactures blood corpuscles.
The spleen varies more in size than any other organ. Normally it cannot be felt, but in typhoid it usually can. It is generally atrophied in old age and hypertrophied in almost all acute infectious diseases, especially in typhoid fever and malaria. In leukemia it is often greatly enlarged. Sometimes in violent falls it is ruptured and there is considerable hemorrhage.
The Suprarenal Capsules.—The other ductless glands, the suprarenal capsules, yellowish triangular bodies, are situated just above and in front of the kidneys. Their function is important but not well understood. Death, accompanied by great muscular weakness, follows the removal of both, and when they are diseased, similar weakness is observed and the skin becomes bronzed. Injection of the extract of the suprarenals stimulates
