A gland of the body situated between the bottom of the stomach and the vertebers of the loins, reaching from the liver to the spleen, and attached to the peritonaeum. It is two fingers in breadth, and six in length, soft and supple. It secretes a kind of saliva and pours it into the duodenum.

The sweetbread, a gland connected with the intestine of nearly all vertebrates. It is usually elongated and light-colored, and its secretion, called the pancreatic juice, is discharged, often together with the bile, into the upper part of the intestines, and is a powerful aid in digestion. See Illust. of Digestive apparatus.