412 VESSELS AND NERVES OF THE KIDNEY. [sect. 188. 



fashion into larger roots (stellulce Verheynii) ; while others of the 

 veins, extending over several of the lobules, also join each other to 

 form larger vessels. In whichever way formed, these larger veins 

 pass inwards as the vence inter lolndares, and are continued, between 

 the cortical fasciculi, along with the arteries of the same name. 

 Here they are reinforced by the reception of numerous other 

 venous radicles from the interior of the cortex, and pass over into 

 the larger veins at right angles. The larger veins lie with their 

 arteries at the circumference of the pyramids, and end, at last, in 

 the main veins. These, like all renal veins, are destitute of valves ; 

 they are of the same number as the arteries, and leave the kidney 

 like these. Before leaving the organ, however, these veins receive 

 additions from the columnce Bertini, and are joined by the second 

 set of renal veins, those from the pyramids. These commence 

 with a beautiful network, surrounding the apertures of the urinary 

 tubules on the papillae, become reinforced by other radicles as they 

 ascend between the tubuli recti, and are placed by the side of the 

 arteries of the pyramids — the vasa efferentia of the innermost 

 glomeruli, or the arteriolar rectae. Thus large vascular bundles 

 are formed, especially around the fasciculi, at the bases of the 

 pyramids, which open, in an arcuate manner, into the dense venous 

 ramification which surrounds the pyramids. 



The vessels of the renal envelopes arise partly from the renal 

 artery before its entrance into the hilus, and from the capsular and 

 lumbar arteries. Other fine twigs are furnished to the fibrous 

 capsule from the arterise interlobulares, after they have supplied 

 the Malpighian corpuscles ,* a capillary network results with wide 

 meshes, which has connexions with vessels in the so-called ' tunica 

 adiposa.' 



The kidney possesses relatively few lymphatics ; they run in the 

 interior, along the larger vessels, and do not appear to extend 

 beyond the vasa interlobularia. In the hilus, they unite to form 

 some trunklets, which receive lymphatics from the pelvis of the 

 kidney, and then open into the lumbar glands. I have not hitherto 

 seen superficial lymphatics, such as are described by the older 

 anatomists (Nuck, Cruikshank, Mascagni, and others), except in 

 the fat-capsule, although I do not mean to deny their existence in 

 the fibrous envelope. 



The renal nerves, from the cceliac plexus of the sympathetic, are 

 tolerably numerous; they form a plexus surrounding the arteries, 

 possess some ganglia in the hilus, and can be followed with the 

 vessels as far as the interlobular arteries. Where and how they 

 terminate is unknown. 



