THE LYMPHATICS OF THE ABDOMEN. 



973 



in the median line (Fig. 815). They occur in the net- work which covers the 

 posterior surface of the sheath of the rectus muscles, and are apparently of inconstant 

 occurrence. 



The remaining abdominal nodes may be regarded as arranged in two principal 

 divisions, one of which includes the groups associated with the various viscera, while 

 the other is formed by the groups occurring in the posterior wall. This latter 

 division may be separated into the coeliac and lumbar nodes. 



The coeliac nodes vary in number from sixteen to twenty, and are situated in 

 front of the abdominal aorta, around the origins of the coeliac axis and the superior 

 mesenteric artery. They are extensively connected with one another so as to form 

 a distinct coeliac plexus (plexus coeliacus). They receive aff events from the lower 

 portions of the oesophagus, from the diaphragm, and from the gastric, hepatic, pan- 

 creatico-splenic, and mesenteric nodes ; the efferents of the lower nodes pass to the 

 higher members of the group and the efTerents of these either open independently 



Fig. S16. 



Right 



suprarenal body- 



Left suprarenal body 



Right kidne) 



Right lateral 



lumbar nodes 



Median lumbar node 



Right ureter 



Iliac node 



Lymphatic vessels 



from testis 



Lumbar nodes, new-born child. {Cuneo.*) 



into the receptaculum chyli, or, more usuallv, unite to form a common trunk, the 

 truncus intestinalis, which joins the left lumbar trunk to form one of the origins of 

 the thoracic duct fpage 943). 



The lumbar nodes (lymphoglandulae lumbales) are twenty to thirty in number, 

 and form three irregular longitudinal rows along the course of the abdominal aorta 

 (Fig. 816), extending from the level of the second lumbar vertebra to the bifurcation 

 of the aorta, and forming with the aid of .connecting vessels a well-marked plexus, 

 the plexus luinbalis. The median row is composed of some five or six large nodes 

 situated upon the anterior surface of the aorta, and of four or five retro-aortic nodes 

 which rest upon the bodies of the third and fourth lumbar vertebrae, immediately 

 below the lower extremity of the receptaculum chyli. Of the lateral rows that of 

 the left side is formed by a number of nodes arranged in an almost vertical series 

 upon the successive heads of the psoas muscle. The right lateral nodes occupy a 



* Bull, et Mem. Societe anatom., 1901. 



