THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE VEINS IN THE LIMBS OF 
RABBIT EMBRYOS. 
BY 
FREDERIC T. LEWIS, A. M., M. D. 
From the Embryological Laboratory, Harvard Medical School. 
Wits 1 Text FIGURE. 
In connection with the preceding study of the lymphatic system it was 
necessary to reconstruct the veins of the shoulder and hip in a series of 
rabbit embryos. The reconstructions were then extended to include the 
distal portions of these vessels, complete figures of which had never been 
published. Hochstetter, in 1891, had observed the veins in the limbs of 
living rabbit embryos, and had studied them in serial sections. His 
drawings, however, show only detached portions of the veins such as 
could be seen under most favorable conditions, in living embryos. ‘Ten 
years later Grosser described but did not reconstruct, the developing veins 
in the extremities of bats. To these two investigators embryology is in- 
debted for the present knowledge of the veins in mammalian limbs. It 
is proposed to review their work, while describing the reconstructions, 
considering first the veins of the anterior extremity, then those of the 
posterior extremity, and finally the homologies which exist between the 
two sets. 
VEINS OF THE ANTERIOR EXTREMITY. 
In the youngest rabbit figured, an embryo of 13 days, Fig. 1, p. 97, 
the small vessels along the radial or anterior border of the arm unite to 
form a vein which follows the periphery of the limb to its posterior or 
ulnar border, and then ascends behind the brachial plexus to terminate 
near the junction of the anterior and posterior cardinal veins. It receives 
a branch which at this stage is not well defined, ascending in the body 
wall. This is the Settenrwmpfvene of Hochstetter, and becomes the 
external mammary vein of the adult. 
According to Hochstetter, in rabbits of 12 and 1214 days, the “ border 
vein” makes a complete circuit of the limb, and its radial part either 
empties into the ulnar vein near its termination or connects with the 
cardinal vein directly. But this radial vein is said to be hard to follow 
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ANATOMY.—VOL, VY. 
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