Lashley Capsule

LASHLEY CAPSULE (Lashley), or funnel, a device for collecting saliva from the human parotid gland. The capsule consists of a silver cup, divided by a ring partition into two chambers: an inner, cylindrical chamber with a diameter of 10 mm, and an outer chamber in the form of a circular groove, 2 mm wide. The depth of the chambers is 3 mm. Into each chamber passes one silver tube (2 mm in diameter and 15 mm in length) (see figure). The tube passing into the inner chamber serves for draining saliva to the outside, while the second is intended for sucking air out of the ring chamber, thanks to which the capsule is suctioned to the mucous membrane of the mouth around the excretory duct of the gland. Saliva

then flows through the tube to the outside. In the laboratories of the USSR, the Lashley capsule, with the help of which both unconditioned and conditioned reflexes in human salivary glands are studied, has undergone several modifications (Krasnogorsky, Frolov, Lenz, Rantchevsky, Kharitonov, etc.).