LYMPHATIC AND LACTEAL SYSTEM. 



213 



necessary to enter more fully into the Ilun- 

 terian theory of absorption. 



The Hunters, Monro, and their followers 

 Cruickshank, Hewson, and Sheldon, conceived 

 that the lacteals and lymphatics formed one 

 great system of vessels by which alone absorp- 

 tion was effected in the living body, either for 

 the purpose of collecting new materials, or for 

 the removal of the old ; consequently, that these 

 vessels were essential agents in the growth and 

 habitual nutrilion of the structures; that 

 whenever any of the solid or fluid components 

 of the body, whether of a healthy or morbid 

 character, disappeared, their removal was 

 effected by the lymphatic vessels; this in- 

 cluded the ulcerative process, which they 

 considered as exclusively carried on by these 

 vessels. Many ingenious experiments were 

 performed to disprove absorption by the veins. 

 Fluids of various colours impregnated with 

 musk and other odours were thrown into the 

 intestines of living animals, and were after- 

 wards detected in the lacteals, but not in the 

 veins, and imbibition was considered impos- 

 sible in the living structures. These views 

 were generally received throughout Europe, 

 and have been acquiesced in almost to the 

 present day. Our phraseology, written or 

 oral, whether in reference to Pathology, 

 Physiology, or Anatomy, is evidently still 

 imbued with them. This theory of the func- 

 tions of the lymphatic system necessitated a 

 corresponding anatomical disposition in the 

 mode of origin, as well as in the general ar- 

 rangement of these vessels. They were re- 

 quired to be universal for the purposes of 

 growth and nutrition ; wherever there was the 

 artery to deposit, there must be lymphatic to 

 absorb ; and as imbibition was inadmissible, 

 they were endowed, as a matter of necessity, 

 with open mouths, by which they were said to 

 commence from all serous and from all mucous 

 surfaces, including the interior of all the visceral 

 cavities, the serous linings of the arteries, veins, 

 and even of the lymphatics themselves, the 

 synovial surfaces of the joints ; the surface of 

 the skin, the mucous linings of the alimentary 

 canal, of the aerial, urinary, and other pas- 

 sages, of the excretory ducts, and from the in- 

 terstitial cellular tissue of the whole organism. 

 It was admitted that the orifices of the lymph- 

 atic vessels could not be shewn ; that they 

 eluded our senses by their transparency and 

 extreme minuteness ; but on the villi of the in- 

 testine, the commencing lacteals were supposed 

 to be detected, turgid with chyle, and their 

 mode of origin by patent orifices svas described 

 by more than one anatomist. An analogous 

 arrangement at their commencement was ad- 

 judged to the lymphatics, without any further 

 investigation directed specially to these vessels. 

 Cruickshank thus describes the appearance 

 of the supposed lacteal orifices on the villi, 

 seen in a female who died suddenly seven or 

 eight hours after a full meal. " In some hun- 

 dred villi, I saw a trunk of a lacteal forming 

 or beginning by radiated branches. The ori- 

 fices of these radii were very distinct on the 

 surface of the villus, as well as the radii them- 



selves, seen through the external surface pass- 

 ing into the trunk of the lacteal ; they were 

 full of a white fluid. There was but one of 

 these trunks in each villus." He states also 

 that Dr. Hunter examined them under the 

 microscope, and counted as many as fifteen to 

 twenty orifices to each villus. According to 

 Lieberkuhn, the lacteal commences on the 

 apex of each villus by one or more orifices 

 leading to an ampullula situated near the apex 

 of the villus, from whence one lacteal branch 

 proceeds through the centre to the base of the 

 villus. The ampullula, he states, is lined by 

 a spongy cellular tissue, which he conceives is 

 subservient to absorption. With respect to the 

 orifices, his words are : " Quod autem unum 

 saltern adsit foraminulum in cujusvis ampul- 

 lula? apice, certo examine mihi constat : in- 

 terdum tamen, licet rarissime, plura ut in pa- 

 pillis mammarum, vidisse memini." Sheldon 

 admits Lieberkuhn's description of the orifice 

 of the lacteal vessel, and of the ampullated ap- 

 pearance of its commencement from the villus ; 

 but it appears to me, on looking at Shel- 

 don's plates, and reading his description of thf 

 ampullula?, that he as well as Lieberkuhr 

 whose plates he has copied, have mistaken th< 

 mucous follicles of the intestines for the am 

 pullated villi. Speaking of theampullulse, Shel- 

 don says, " I have seen them of different forms, 

 most commonly bulbous, as represented by 

 Lieberkuhn. I have also seen a number of 

 ampullula? filled with chyle, sometimes form- 

 ing clusters, as represented in plate I., whili 

 in other parts of the small intestines I havi 

 found them solitary, and projecting beyond thi 

 villi, as may be seen in several of the figures 

 in plate I." Ilewson has seen a net-work 01 

 lacteals as well as of bloodvessels on the 

 villus, but no ampullul*; he states that the 

 orifices of the lacteals can only be discerned 

 when the vrllus is rendered turgid and erect 

 by the fullness of the bloodvessels. In refer- 

 ence to these orifices, he says : " It might be 

 here objected that these were only lacerations 

 of the villi, but I am persuaded they were not, 

 from having, on repeatedly examining them, 

 observed the pores or orifices very distinct and 

 empty ; whereas, were they lacerations, I think 

 I should have seen the injection in them, as 

 the villi were so much injected by it." These 

 are the data upon which has been founded the 

 opinion that the lacteals and lymphatics arise 

 every where by open mouths. I have myself 

 examined under the microscope the villi of 

 various animals destroyed at different periods 

 after a meal, for the purpose of detecting the 

 mode of origin of the lacteal vessels. I have 

 looked at them for hours together before and 

 after the bloodvessels had been filled to great 

 minuteness, but have never been enabled to 

 discover orifices on the apices, or on any 

 other part of the villus, and I can adduce the 

 names of a host of modern observers of consi- 

 derable celebrity, Rudolphi, Panizza, Haasse, 

 Laull), Fohmann, Breschet,Muller,Treviranus, 

 and others, who deny the existence of any such 

 orifices. Magendie and Cruveilhier conceive 

 that the chyle must enter the lacleals by ori- 



