Pituitary

(pit-u’ -it-a-re) \_pituita, phlegm]. Secreting or containing mucus. P. Body, a small, reddish-gray, vascular body, weighing about ten grains, contained within the sella turcica of the skull. It consists of two portions, the large anterior or oral, and the small posterior or cerebral division. The anterior lobe is derived as a diverticulum from the primitive oral cavity; the posterior lobe descends as an outgrowth from the brain, communicating in fetal life with the third ventricle. The stalk of this outgrowth remains as the infundibulum. The pituitary body has attracted much attention on account of pathologic changes in its structure in certain obscure diseases, such as acromegaly, myxedema, and others. In some cases of the affection first named, it has been much enlarged. It is also called hypophysis cerebri. P. Membrane, the Schneiderian membrane. 501