210 



LYMPHATIC AND LACTEAL SYSTEM. 



'' II consiste (ce precede) apercer superficielle- 

 ment le tissu cutane avec 1'extremite d'un tube 

 capillaire en verre ou en acier, de facon a 

 n'interesser que I'epiderme, pour arriver au 

 reseau vasculaire situe entre cet epiderme et le 

 chorion. On obtient ainsi 1'injection de reseaux 

 admirables de vaisseaux lymphatiques." I 

 have frequently produced the appearance here 

 alluded to in all parts of the body : a foetus 

 answers best for the purpose, but the proper 

 lymphatics are never filled from these supposed 

 net-works of lymphatic vessels. They are 

 clearly nothing more than the spaces around 

 the bases of the papillae of the skin, from which, 

 as putrefaction commences, the cuticle sepa- 

 rates more readily than from their apices, con- 

 sequently little canals are left around the pa- 

 pills, which communicate with each other and 

 form a pretty exact resemblance to vessels fill- 

 ing rapidly as the mercury runs around the 

 bases of the papillae. The appearance can only 

 be produced at a certain stage of putrefaction 

 when the cuticle is about to separate. On 

 removing the cuticle, the pretended vessels im- 

 mediately disappear; but on the glans penis, 

 on the scrotum, and on the skin of the nipple 

 the removal of the cuticle will not disturb the 

 net-works of vessels -which may be there in- 

 jected; moreover from these the lymphatic 

 trunks can always be filled. I am also dis- 

 posed to think, contrary to the received opinion, 

 that the serous membranes do not universally 

 present this superficial network of lymphatics; 

 there are at any rate parts of these membranes 

 where I have never seen these vessels injected, 

 while there are others in which anatomists in- 

 variably succeed in shewing them ; and for the 

 mere purpose of absorbing the fluid secreted 

 by the serous sacs, there appears to me nothing 

 extraordinary in the supposition, that those por- 

 tions of the membrane only which are most 

 conveniently situated for the purpose should be 

 endowed with the proper organization to effect it. 

 The mode of procedure, however, adopted by 

 Fohmann and others to display the incipient 

 lymphatic net-works is open to serious objec- 

 tions, and calculated without great circumspec- 

 tion to lead into error. The capillary blood- 

 vessels will often be implicated in the wound 

 required to pierce the lymphatic net-work, con- 

 sequently the injection may be found in the 

 arterial and venous as well as in the larger 

 lymphatic branches leading from the part. To 

 succeed to any extent many punctures may be 

 required, and in all probability some of these 

 will conduct the injection into the three sets of 

 vessels ; but 1 have several times by the first 

 puncture succeeded in injecting a net-work of 

 vessels on the glans penis, which has conveyed 

 the injection at once into the lymphatic 

 branches on the body of the penis, and into 

 these vessels only. The cellular tissue will 

 also readily receive the injection, and where 

 the cells are very small and uniform, as is the 

 case with the umbilical cord, they resemble 

 very much a net-work of vessels distended 

 with quicksilver; and although Fohmann ad- 

 mits these to be cells, yet from their regularity 

 he has been led to consider them a part of the 



lymphatic system. In the same category may 

 be classed the supposed lymphatic cells of the 

 cornea observed by Arnold and by Miiller. 

 The submucous cellular tissue also is fre- 

 quently arranged in little cylindrical cells which 

 communicate with each other, and these cells 

 on receiving the mercury put on the appearance 

 pretty exactly of a net-work of vessels, but 

 lymphatic vessels are not found conveying the 

 injection away from them to the nearest lym- 

 phatic glands, which I imagine should be the 

 proof required before we admit any vessels or 

 cells to belong to the lymphatic system, how- 

 ever beautifully displayed by our injections. 

 The subserous tissue is open to the same re- 

 mark, and I can hardly offer a better instance 

 of what appears to me to be an error arising 

 from this source, than by quoting Fohmann's 

 own words in reference to what he describes as 

 the lymphatics of the brain. " Les vaisseaux 

 lymphatiques des enveloppes des masses cen- 

 tral es du systeme nerveux sont tres faciles a 

 demontrer, surtout au cerveau et au cervelet. 

 Lorsqu'on enfonce une lancette entre la pie- 

 mere et 1'arachnoi'de, et qu'on insuffle le canal 

 que Ton vient de pratiquer, on voit paraitre un 

 reseau lymphatique interpose entre ses deux 

 tuniques, reseau forme de rameaux d'un calibre 

 plus considerable que dans les autres tissus du 

 corps; cependant leurs parois sont si foibles 

 qu'elles se dechirent presque aussitot qu'on y 

 introduit le mercure." With respect to the 

 universal net-work of lymphatics attributed to 

 the lining membrane of the heart, and to that 

 of the arteries and veins, I cannot admit, that 

 the injections of a few minute canals with 

 quicksilver on the lining membrane of the 

 heart in the horse, by Lauth, and similar in- 

 jections by Cruveilhier and Bonamy, can be 

 received as demonstrative : the injection was 

 not traced from them to a distinct lymphatic 

 vessel, armed with valves and pursuing its 

 course towards a lymphatic gland ; these mi- 

 nute canals might have been capillary blood- 

 vessels, or, as Breschet observes in his expla- 

 nation of the plate which he gives from Lauth 

 of these supposed vessels, " Nous pensons 

 qu'ils sont uniquement constitutes par des la- 

 cunes du tissu cellulaire." 



In concluding what I had to say of the 

 origin of the lymphatic vessels, a subject so 

 inextricably mixed up with our preconceived 

 physiological notions, I ought, perhaps, to 

 offer some apology for advancing in an article 

 of this nature any opinion peculiar to myself; 

 I mean in reference to curtailing the extent to 

 which the lymphatic system will be found to 

 exist in the organism. My own mind has been 

 forced to this conclusion after some years of 

 attention to the subject, both from anatomical 

 and physiological considerations. 



It has appeared to me in the first place, that 

 anatomists who have especially devoted their 

 time to this interesting subject of late years, 

 have not yet fairly freed themselves from the 

 influence of the Hunterian views with respect 

 to the part performed by the lymphatic vessels, 

 as well as by the arterial capillaries, in effect- 

 ing the growth and habitual nutrition of the 



