Mikrokosmographia a description of the body of man. Together vvith the controuersies thereto belonging. Collected and translated out of all the best authors of anatomy, especially out of Gasper Bauhinus and Andreas Laurentius. By Helkiah Crooke Doctor of Physicke, physitian to His Maiestie, and his Highnesse professor in anatomy and chyrurgerie. Published by the Kings Maiesties especiall direction and warrant according to the first integrity, as it was originally written by the author.

CHAP. XLII. What a Glandule is, and how many kinds there be of them.

BEcause many of the Ancients haue defined a Glandule to bee a Flesh rowled vp into it selfe: I haue thought sit sayth Laurentius for order sake to refer the * 1.1 whole kinde or kin of Glandules vnto Flesh.

A Glandule therefore which the Graecians call 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is a simple part, Rare and f••yable soft like a sponge, appoynted by Nature to firme and establish the vesselles, to sucke or drinke vp superfluous humours, and to water or dew some partes that stoode need of moysture.

The Authour of the Booke de Glandulis, whether it were Hippocrates or Polybius, hath elegantly expressed the nature of a Glandule, where hee sayeth Their Nature is spongy for they are rare and fat. That they are of such a nature you shall easily find if you presse them hard betwixt your Fingers, for they will yeilde an oylie humour and bloud, white like phlegme. Now it is consonant to reason that they haue such a substance, not for nought but for some particular and especiall vse. That vse is three-fold.

The first vse of Glandules is to firme or establish the diuarications or diuisions of the vessels. For it was to be feared least the vessels running through large and ample caui∣ties, * 1.2 if they had no other muniment or defence sauing their owne membranes, would in violent motions be broken off, as in great windes boughes are torne from a tree; vnlesse these glandulous bodies did lye soft vnder them and establish and sustaine them. And therefore where the vessells are forcked or deuided, there Nature hath euer placed Glan∣dules vnder them.

So in the diuision of the Gate-veine there is a notable Glandule called Pancreas or the Sweete-bread. In the diuarications of the veines of the Mesentery there are Glan∣dules almost infinite. In the distribution of the ascending trunke of the hollow veine is the glandule called Thymus which is the sweetebread in calues. In the vessels of the braine the glandule called Conarium or the pine-glandule. In the the necke, in the arme pits and in the groynes where the Iugular axillary and crurall veins are diuided there are glan∣dules placed to support their diuisions. VVherefore they were made soft and rare, that neyther their hardnesse might offend the vessels, and by yeelding they might giue way to the distentions when they strut with blood.

The second vse of the glandules is like sponges to sucke and drinke vp fleame, whey * 1.3 and other superuacuous humours, that they should not rush vpon the more noble parts. In which respect their forme is round, somewhat long, and their substance rare and open; so fitted to receiue the greater quantity of any kind of influxion. This vse the authour of the booke de glandulis openeth vnto vs in these words. They beare away the redundan∣cie or surplussage of the rest of the body, and that indeede is their familiar Alement. It may also by reason be demonstrated that they were ordayned by nature to purge away moyst superfluities; for those parts that are hollow, and especially if they bee moyst and full of blood, haue more and larger glandules then those that are solide and lesse succu∣lent, as are the ioynts. So behind the eares about the necke where the iugular veines run, about the arme pit where the axillary branch is, and about the groynes where the crurall veine appeareth, there are notable glandules which receiue the superfluities of the prin∣cipall parts, the Brayne, the Heart and the Liuer, which glandules are commonly called Emunctories, and if they swell or bee otherwise affected, they betoken the distemper of their owne bowell or some ill disposition therein. Hippocrates in the second section of his 6. booke Epidemion, saith Abscesses or Apostemes (as for example the tumors of the glan∣dules) are produced as fruitelesse water shootes of those places, out of which they grow. They also bewray the condition of other places and parts, and especially of the bowels. Galen also in the thirteenth booke of his Methode saith, that when an Apostemation ari∣seth neare any notable artery or vein sudainly do spring vp Bubones, that is, inflammations of the glandules.

Thirdly we added in the definition, that the vse of the glandules was to irrigate or * 1.4 water some parts lest they should too easily bee exiccated and dryed or made vnfit for motion. Such are some of the glandules of the Mesentery, which with their moysture do dew the guts. Such are also the glandules of the Throttle or the Tongue, which in∣gender or gather spittle. The glandules in the corners of the Eyes doe make much toward the celerity and ease their motions, and finally those prostate glandules in the neck of the bladder doe water and moysten the Vreter with an oyly humidity, lest it should bee offen∣ded by the Acrimony of the vrine. And this is the nature of glandules properly so called.

There is also another kinde of glandules which may more truly be called Glandulous bodyes. Their substance indeed is like vnto a glandule that is rare and lax, but it is orday∣ned * 1.5 by Nature for the generation of humours or iuyces which are profitable for the crea∣ture. Proper or simple glandules haue neither peculiar veines, nor arteries, nor nerues And according to Galen, they are in the last of those parts which haue faculties inbred & seated in them, not flowing from otherwhere: but these glandulous bodyes haue ma∣nifest and conspicuous vessels, and are also of exquisite sense. The former haue onely an vse in the body: these latter haue not onely an vse, but doe also performe an action. So in Galen the Testicles are called glandulous bodyes: for their substance is soft and hollow, in which the seede is boyled and perfected. So the dugs are glandulous bodyes and haue a power or faculty in them for the generation of milke. Notwithstanding these glandulous bodyes doe sometimes affoord the same vse that the other glandules doe, that is, to sucke or sup vp the recrements or excrements of the whole body: for Nature doth often abuse

one and the same part to diuers vses. So Hippocrates reckoneth the Kidneyes in the num∣ber of the Glandules, yea and the braine it selfe is like vnto a Glandule, for it is white and friable and performeth the offices of a Glandule to the head.

Notes

• * 1.1

  What a glan∣dule is.
• * 1.2

  The first vse of glandules.
• * 1.3

  Their second vse.
• * 1.4

  The thire vse.
• * 1.5

  Glandulous bodyes.