pineal gland nounDate: 1712 a small usually conical appendage of the brain of all
craniate vertebrates that functions primarily as an endocrine organ and
that in a few reptiles has the essential structure of an eye — called
also pineal, pineal body, pineal organ
Pineal Gland
a small cone-shaped body of yellowish matter in the
brain, the size of a pea, and situated in the front of the cerebellum,
notable as considered by Descartes to be the seat of the soul, but is now
surmised to be a rudimentary remnant of some organ, of vision it would
seem, now extinct.
Pineal \Pi"ne*al\, a. [L. pinea the cone of a pine, from pineus
of the pine, from pinus a pine: cf. F. pin['e]ale.]
Of or pertaining to a pine cone; resembling a pine cone.
Pineal gland (Anat.), a glandlike body in the roof of the
third ventricle of the vertebrate brain; -- called also
pineal body, epiphysis, conarium. In some animals it
is connected with a rudimentary eye, the so-called pineal
eye, and in other animals it is supposed to be the remnant
of a dorsal median eye.
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