LYMPHATIC GLANDS. 



407 



sends loops of capillaries into their interior (Fig. 161, B). We may assume that 

 lymph-corpuscles pass from these capillaries into the follicle. 



In connection with these follicles, including those of the back of the tongue, 

 the solitary glands of the intestine and the adenoid tissue in the bronchial tract, 

 the tonsils, Peyer's patches, it is important to remember that enormous numbers 

 of leucocytes pass out between the epithelial cells covering these follicles. The 

 extruded leucocytes undergo disintegration siibseqiiently (Ph. Stohr). 



(2.) The compound lymph-glands the so-called lymphatic glands represent 

 a collection of lymph-follicles, whose form is somewhat altered. Every lymph - 

 gland is covered externally with a connective- tissue capsule (Fig. 162, c), which con- 

 tains numerous non-striped muscular fibres (0. Heyf elder). From its inner surface, 

 numerous septa and trabeculaj (tr) pass into the interior of the gland, so that the 

 gland-substance is divided into a large number of compartments. These com- 

 partments in the cortical portion of the gland have a somewhat rounded form, and 

 constitute the alveoli, while in the medullary portion they have a more elongated 

 and irregular form. [On making a section of a lymph-gland we can readily dis- 

 tinguish the cortical from the medullary portion of the gland.] All the compart- 

 ments are of equal dignity, and they all communicate with each other by means 

 of openings, so that the septa bound a rich net- work of spaces within the gland, 

 which communicate on all sides with each other. 



.z. 



Fig. 162. 



Diagrammatic section of a lymphatic gland a, I, afferent ; e, I, efferent lymphatics ; 

 C, cortical substance; M, reticular cords of medulla; I, s, lymph-sinus; r, 

 capsule, with trabeculse, tr. 



These spaces are traversed by the follicular threads (Fig. 163, /, /). These repre- 

 sent the contents of the spaces, but they are smaller than the spaces in which they 

 lie, and do not come into contact anywhere with the walls of the spaces. If we 

 imagine the spaces to be injected with a mass, which ultimately shrinks to one-half 

 of its original volume, we obtain a conception of the relation of these follicular 

 threads to the spaces of the gland. The blood-vessels of the gland (b) lie within 

 these follicular threads. They are surrounded by a tolerably thick crust of adenoid 

 tissue, with very fine meshes (x, x) filled with lymph-corpuscles, and with its surface 

 (o, o) covered by the cells of the adenoid reticulum, in such a way as to leave 

 free communications through the narrow meshes. 



