264 OF THE ABSORBENT VESSELS. 



injected after death into the mesenteric veins, passing 

 into the cavity of the intestines, has little weight with 

 me in regard to a function which occurs during fife ; 

 and much less weight can be allowed to the brass tube 

 with two legs and two branches invented by Lieberkiihn 

 to prove the existence of these passages. (C) The 

 Assertion that chyle has been seen in the mesenteric 

 veins,* requires farther investigation and proof; so 

 that I cannot believe that they carry any thing more 

 than blood, very carbonised and destined for the for- 

 mation of bile.f (D) 



428. The ultimate trunks of the lacteals, arising, 

 like the lymphatics, from the combination of a great 

 number of small twigs, J unite into the receptaculum or 

 cisterna chyli, the appellation by which the lower and 



* Werner and Feller, 1. c. p. 12 sq. 



f There is a beautiful experiment which seems, at first sight, to favor the 

 existence of these secret passages, and for which I am indebted to the eminent 

 L?Cp. m. A. Caldani. In a lamb or kid, after hearty feeding, a ligature is 

 placed upon the vein corresponding with our left subclavian, and another, par- 

 ticularly tigbt, upon the mesentery, at its origin near the lumbar vertebrae. The 

 lacteals and lymphatics, between the ligatures, become very evident ; and 

 likewise the lymphatics ascending from the hind legs. At first, the lactoals 

 between the. intestines and constricted mesentary swell, but they soon subside 

 and disappear. 



This singular phenomenon, however, appears to me not owing so much to 

 any secret passages for the chyle, as to a retrograde motion of it into the 

 intestines ; the valves, under these circumstances, not offering sufficient oppo- 

 sition. Vide B. Nath. Gottl. Schreger, Fragmenta Anatomica et Physiologica. 

 Fasc. 1. Lips. 1791. 4to. p. 26. 



Flor. Caldani, Riftessioni sopra alcuni punti di tin ntiovo sistema de' vast 

 assorbe?iti, tyc. Padua. 1792. 8vo. p. 58. 



And his uncle, commended above, Leop. M. A. Caldani, in his Commentary 

 to be found in the Memorie lette nclC Acad. di Pajova. 1804. 4to: 



J Sheldon, 1. c. Tab. v. 



