SECT. 2 1 8.] LYMPHATIC GLANDS. 507 



trabecule, this tissue consists simply and entirely of the above- 

 described fusiform and stellate fibre-cells, which simply anasto- 

 mose with each other where the spongy tissue is most delicate ; 

 and where it is somewhat coarser, several of them lie side by side 

 to form the thicker trabecular 



Now the juice which is readily obtained from the cortex of a 

 lymphatic gland, is contained in the anastomosing meshes of the 

 above-mentioned delicate spongy tissue. To the microscope it 

 presents nothing else than roundish cells, o , oo3'" to 0*004'", 

 more rarely reaching 0*005'" to 0*007'", which entirely agree 

 with those of the chyle and lymph. My more recent obser- 

 vations lead me to reject the belief, that this juice is an in- 

 dependent stationary gland-element, and I now view it as being 

 simply chyle or lymph, which is continually carried towards the 

 \ ;isa effcrcntia. But this theory will be discussed more in detail 

 further on. 



The medullary substance occupies the interior of the glands, and 

 is more or less exposed to view at the hilus, according to the extent 

 of this spot. Its colour, in the glands of the external parts, is 

 whitish, but in the visceral lymphatic glands is more reddish-grey. 

 In man it is more or less sharply marked off from the cortical part, 

 and does not present any trace of the alveolar structure of the 

 cortex, but consists of a dense plexus of lymphatic vessels, which is 

 in immediate connection with the vasa efferentia of the glands ; and 

 here also the coarser ramifications of the blood-vessels are found. 

 Both kinds of vessels are supported by a pretty abundant stroma 

 of rather dense connective tissue, without elastic elements ; and in 

 this stroma in the larger glands of the external regions, larger or 

 smaller collections of fat-cells are interspersed. 



The most difficult part of the anatomy of the lymphatic glands, 

 is to ascertain the arrangement of the lymphatic vessels in their 

 interior, and the two old views of Malpighi and Heioson still stand 

 opposed to each other. The former of these authors regarded the 

 glands as consisting of large anastomosing spaces (or cells, as they 

 have been termed) ; the latter, on the other hand, considered 

 them as a plexus of true lymphatic vessels. For my own part, I 

 find a great difference, w T hich has not been noticed by any physi- 

 ologist, between the condition of the lymphatic vessels in the 

 cortex and in the medulla of the glands. In the former situ- 

 ation, it is readily seen how the different vessels on their arrival 

 at a gland repeatedly divide and perforate the envelope of the 

 organ • they then surround the outermost alveoli of the cortex 



