150 REPORT—1840. 
tions, which he had made at first without an acquaintance with those 
of Henle, lead to the same conclusion respecting the mode of secretion, 
in all the gastro-intestinal glands, whether of a simple or more com- 
pound structure. 
The author gave an account of the structure and general distribution 
of the gastro-intestinal mucous glands in the human subject under the 
following heads. 
Ist. The glands of Lieberkuhn, or minute tubes which constitute the 
greater part of the mucous membrane. 
2nd. The simple follicular glands occupying the greater part of the 
stomach, or simple gastric glands. 
3rd. The more compound gastric glands, observed frequently round 
the cardia, and more rarely toward the pylorus in the human stomach. 
4th. The compound duodenal glands, or glands of Brunner. 
5th. The aggregated glands of the small intestine, or glands of 
Peyer. 
6th. The solitary glands of the small intestine. 
7th. The solitary glands of the large intestine. 
The author also described the structure and distribution of these dif- 
ferent sets of glands in various animals; viz. the pig, sheep and ox, 
horse, dog, cat and lion, badger, porpoise. 
Theauthorthenentered intoadetail of some observations which he had 
recently made on the gastric glands, and onthe solitary glands of the large 
intestine, from which he arrives at the conclusion, that at an early period 
of life these glands have all the form of closed vesicles. This closed 
condition of the follicular glands he has observed in the stomach of a 
child eight months old, and in the large intestine of the child at birth. 
The author adverted to the occurrence of minute vesicles in the stomach 
of the adult, an appearance mentioned by Boehm and Henle, but one 
from which the vesicular condition of the gastric and intestinal glands 
observed by the author is to be distinguished. At the age of sixteen 
months, a few of the gastric glands are still to be observed in the com- 
pletely closed condition. At the age of four years they appeared all to 
be open. 
The author found that in the pig two weeks old, only two of the 
gastric glands were open; all the rest constituted minute closed vesi- 
cles. 
The author observed that the closed condition of the solitary glands 
of the large intestine, which belongs to them all at the period of birth, 
becomes less general and less distinct as age advances; but at the age 
of two years and upwards he has found occasionally some of these 
glands closed. 
Dr. Thomson then referred to the various opinions of anatomists 
respecting the existence or absence of apertures in the vesicles com- 
posing the aggregated and solitary glands of the small intestine, and ad- 
verted more particularly to the observations of Boehm and Krause on 
this point; he stated that he had frequently observed distinct central 
apertures in the vesicles conposing the glands of Peyer in the pig, sheep, 
horse, and occasionally, but more rarely, in the adult human subject, 
