Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PIN'E-AL, a. [Fr. pineale, from L. pinus.]

The pineal gland is a part of the brain, a heart-like substance, about the bigness of a pea, situated immediately over the corpora quadrigemina, and hanging from the thalami nervorum opticorum, by two crura or peduncles. It was so called from its shape. It was considered by Descartes as the seat of the soul. – Hooper.