Ampulla

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An ampulla (plural "ampullae") was, in Ancient Rome, a "small nearly globular flask or bottle, with two handles" (OED). The word is used of these in archaeology, and of later, often handle-less flasks for holy water or holy oil in the Middle Ages, often bought as souvenirs of pilgrimages.

• Part of the British Crown Jewels is the Ampulla, a hollow, gold, eagle-shaped vessel from which the anointing oil is poured by the Archbishop of Canterbury at the anointing of a new British sovereign at their coronation.

[edit] Medicine and science

• By extension, in scientific contexts, it may mean a dilated segment in a tubular structure. It is used to describe several anatomical structures:
  • Ampullae of Lorenzini
  • ampulla of uterine tube
  • ampulla of ductus deferens
  • hepatopancreatic ampulla, also called ampulla of Vater
  • rectal ampulla
  • osseous ampullae

• Ampullae are also bulb-like structures above the tube feet in echinoderms, and in arthropod male genitals.

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