1G8 Mr John GootUir on the Striictiire of the Intestinal 



transmitted light white and opaque ; under higher powers they 

 exhibited appearances represented in fig. G, PI. 1. The summit 

 of the villus, somewhat flattened, was crowded immediately un- 

 der the membrane before mentioned, with a number of perfectly 

 spherical vesicles. These vesicles varied in size from 1000 to 

 less than 2000 of an inch. The matter in their interior had 

 an opalescent milky appearance. Towards the body of the 

 villus on the edges of the vesicular mass, minute granular or 

 oily particles were situated in great numbers, and gradually 

 passed into the granular texture of the substance of the villus. 



The trunks of two lacteals could be easily traced up the 

 centre of the villus, and as they approached the vesicular mass 

 they subdivided and looped. In no instance coul(J one of these 

 lacteals be traced to any of the spherical vesicles, nor could 

 any direct communication between the structures be detected* 

 The bloodvessels and capillaries, with their columns of tawny 

 blood disks, could be seen passing in radiating lines and in 

 loops across the villus, immediately under the fine membrane 

 already mentioned. This membrane, perceptible on the body 

 and neck of the villus only by the smooth surface it presented, 

 was most distinctly traced at the free extremity of the villus, 

 as it passed from the surface of one vesicle on to that of ano- 

 ther. The vesicles pushing the membrane forward, and grouped 

 together in masses on its attached surface, gave the extremity 

 of the villus the appearance of a mulberry. When viewed on 

 a dark ground as an opaque object, the point directed to the 

 light, a villus in this condition is remarkably beautiful, the 

 play of the light on the surface of the highly refractive semi- 

 opaque and opalescent vesicles, giving them the appearance 

 of a group of pearls. 



In villi turgid with chyle, which have been kept for some 

 time in spirits, the contents of the vesicles are opaque, the al- 

 bumen having become coagulated. 



The villi of the rabbit exhibit similar vesicles during di- 

 gestion, and I am at present engaged in preparing drawings 

 and descriptions of these formations in the different classes of 

 the animal kingdom. 



To understand the part which the vesicles of the villus play 

 in digestion, it is necessary to be aware of certain of the func- 

 tions of the cell, with which physiologists are yet unacquainted. 



