Online Encyclopedia
Make a correction
Your email address will not appear on the site. Note, comments may take some time to be approved.
Back to article:
DUCTLESS GLANDS
Your email:
Article name:
Article content:
DUCTLESS GLANDS, in anatomy. A certain number of glands in the body, often of great physiological importance, have no ducts (Lat. due/us, from ducere, to lead, i.e. vessels, tubes or canals for conveying away fluid or other substance); and their products, known as internal secretions, are at once carried away by the veins or lymphatics which drain them. Among these structures are the spleen, the adrenals, the thyroid gland, the parathyroids, the thymus and the carotid and coccygeal bodies. In addition to these the lymphatic glands are described in the article on the lymphatic system (q.v.), and the pineal and pituitary bodies in the article on the brain (q.v.).