PHARYNX (Gr.) is the name of that part of the alimentary canal which lies behind the nose, month, and larynx. It is a musculo-membranous SAC, situated upon the cer vical portion of the vertrebral column, and extending from the base of the skillki to the level of the fifth cervical vertebra, where it becomes continuous with the msophagus (q.v.) Its length is about four inches and a half, it is broader in its transverse than in its anteroposterior diameter, and its narrowest point is at its termination in the oesophagus. Seven foramina or openings communicate with it, viz.: the two posterior naresor nostrils, at the upper and front part of the pharynx; the two Eustachian tubes, opening on the outer surface of the ceding orifices; the mouth; the larynx; and the phagus.
The pharynx is composed of an external muscular coat; a middle fibrous coat called the pharyngeal aponce mosis, thick above where the muscular coat is absent, and gradually thinning as it descends; and a mucous coat, con tinuous with the mucous membrane of the month and nostrils. The muscular coat requires special notice. It is composed of a superior, middle, and inferior constrictor muscle on either side, together with two.less important .muscles, termed the and geal muscles. When the food, after being sufficiently masticated and mixed with saliva, is thrown, by the action of the tongue, into the pharynx, the latter is drawn upwards and dilated in different directions; the elevator muscles (the stylo-pharyngeal and palato-pharyngeal) then relax, and the pharynx descends; and as soon as the mor sel is fairly within the sphere of action of the constrictor muscles, they successively contract upon it, and gradually pass it onwards to the cesopliagus. Independently of its
importance in the net of swallowing, the pharynx exerts an influence on the modulation of the voice, especially in the production of the higher notes.
The pharynx is not so frequently a seat of disease as many other parts of the intestinal tube. In cases of diphtheria (q.v.) it is usually the chief seat of the disease. It is ihtb:e to ordinary inflammation or affection characterized by pain, especially in swallowing, without redness in the or change of Voice. Little in the way of treatment, except low diet and attention to the bowels, is required; and the inflammation usually ter minates in resolution. Sometimes, however, it proceeds to suppuration, and abcesses—dangerous partly from inanition consequent on inability to take food, hut chiefly from suffocation due to pressure on the larynx—are formed. These abscesses are more dangerous in the lower than in the upper part of the pharynx, and are more common in young children than in adults. The treatment con sists in opening the abscess, which gives immediate relief; but the operation must be conducted with great care, and the incision made as nearly as possible to the mesial line, in consequence of the large adjacent blood-vessels.