“Mucus, phlegm” in Latin.  Ancient anatomists thought the pituitary produced the mucous secretions of the nose.  The pituitary is a pea-sized gland hanging from a stalk on the undersurface of the brain.  It is well protected in a bony depression, the sella turcica, in the floor of the cranial cavity.  The gland is located near […]

Our “tailbone” was called the “cuckoo” by the Greeks who thought it resembled the beak of the bird of the same name. This structure is a fusion of three or four vertebral bones, greatly reduced in size, that is attached to the end of our spinal column.  In rare instances an individual is born with an […]

“Bottom” in Latin.  A number of organs have a part called the fundus or fundic region.  Confusingly, the fundus is typically the top of these organs such as the top of the uterus, the top of the urinary bladder, the top of the stomach.  However, it makes perfect sense since the word fundus specifically refers […]