Saliva
the transparent watery fluid secreted by glands connected with the mouth.
The quantity secreted in 24 hours varies; its average amount is probably from 1 to 3 ounces . The purposes served by saliva are mechanical and chemical. It SALLUST keeps the mouth in a due condition of moisture, and by mixing with the food during mastication it makes it a soft pulpy mass such as may be easily swallowed. The chemical action of saliva on the food is to convert the starchy elements into some kind of sugar. The salivary glands are compound tubular glands known as the parotid, the sub-maxillary, and the sub-lingual, and numerous smaller bodies of similar structure, and with separate ducts , which are scattered thickly beneath the mucous membrane of the lips, cheeks, soft palate, and root of the glands are absent in some mammals and reptiles, and in most fishes. exciting or producing an unusual secre-