20 OBSERVATIONS ON THE
minute branches, far more fo than has been conceived by anatomifts, there
fccms to be reafon for fuppofing, that the glandula pituitaria performs an
office fimlhir to that of a conglobate gland.
This opinion will appear ftill more probable, if further experience fliall
confirm what Petit has alledged, to wit, tliat, in hydrocephalus, he had
found the glandula pituitaria fcirrhous. From my own obfervation, I
fliould concludc, that fcirrhi of that gland happened rarely, as I found it
to appearancc found in twelve cafes of hydrocephalus.
This lafl remark does not prove that its office is not fuch as I have fuppofed;
for we often fee dropfy of other parts, the lymphatic glands of which
are in a found ftate.
C H A P .
N E R V O U S S Y S T E M .
c h a p t e r VI.
Of the Ufe of the Ventricles of the Encephaloii.
TO the conjeftures propofed by authors, few of which are fatisfaflory,
I have only to add, that the ventricles ferve to increafe the furface
of the pia mater, and that, whatever purpofes are ferved by, that membrane
and its veffels on the furface of the brain, we mull fuppofe the fame performed
by it within the ventricles.
W h e n we attend to the colour of the infidc of the ventricles, we find
the corpora ftriata cineritious, but almoft all the other parts are white or
medullary. Within the portions which are medullary on the furface, we,
however, find cineritious matter, as within the thalami nervorum opticorum
and fornix.
C H A P .