INTESTINAL DIGESTION. 435 



might be regarded as a distinct glandular vesicle, which dehisces and discharges 

 its contents, when these are prepared for being set free; and that it is then suc- 

 ceeded by a new vesicle developed de novo from a parent-cell ( 235). A new 

 view of the character of the Peyerian bodies, however, has lately been put forth 

 by Briicke ; who affirms that they are always closed in their normal condition, 

 and maintains that they are appendages to the absorbent system, its trunks 

 being filled by injections made to penetrate from them, and their cellular con- 

 tents being precisely conformable in aspect and character to those of the mesen- 

 teric glandulae. 1 It has been further demonstrated by Prof. Frei, that the 

 interior of each vesicle is traversed by a set of capillary vessels, which radiate 

 from the periphery towards the centre, and then return by loops ; a a structure 

 which is found also in the " Malpighian bodies" of the Spleen, the vesicles of 

 the Thynius, &c. Hence, these anatomists urge that the so-called " Peyerian 

 glandulse" must be regarded as instruments for the elaboration of the chyle, 

 which is conveyed to them by the very delicate absorbents that originate in the 

 villi, and is carried off by the larger trunks which then pass into the mesen- 

 tery. 3 The walls of the Large Intestine contain a considerable number of 

 glandulae, which closely resemble the "glandulae solitaries" of the higher part 

 of the canal; these, however, are so much more frequently open than closed, 

 that the latter condition was not recognized until pointed out by Dr. Baly. 4 It 

 can scarcely be doubted that these are secreting organs, destined to pour the 

 product of their activity into the alimentary canal; but whether this product 

 be the peculiar mucus with which the coats of the large intestine are covered, 

 or consist of the proper fecal matter, or be something different from either, has 

 not yet been determined. 



457. The undigested residue of the food, mingled with the products of secre- 

 tion that have been poured into the alimentary canal, gradually acquires, in the 

 Large Intestine, the ordinary consistency of feces, through the continuance of 

 the absorbent process, whereby the superfluous fluid is removed. The condition 

 of the undigested residue has been particularly studied by Dr. Rawitz, who ex- 

 amined microscopically the products of the artificial digestion of different kinds 

 of aliment, and the contents of the feces of animals that had eaten the same 

 articles. "The general results of his examinations, as regards animal food, 

 show that the muscular tissue breaks up into its constituent fasciculi, and that 



1 See his Memoir "Ueber den Bau und die physiologische Bedeutung der Peyerischen 

 Drvisen," in " Denkschriften der kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften," Wien, 1850; 

 and an abstract of it in the "Edinb. Monthly Journ.," Nov. 1850. 



2 See Prof. Kolliker's " Mikroskopische Anatomic," band ii. 171. 



3 In the above statements, the Author has considered it preferable to place before his 

 readers the results of actual observations, rather than to indulge in any hypothesis of his 

 own. Taking for granted the doctrine generally admitted amongst modern anatomists 

 and physiologists, that the Peyerian vesicles are glandules discharging their product into 

 the intestinal tube combining this with the doctrine, of which also there appeared to his 

 mind to be adequate evidence, that the proper fecal matter is a secretion sui generis, and 

 not a mere product of the decomposition of the contents of the alimentary canal and 

 taking into account the correspondence in position between the principal aggregations of 

 Peyerian glandulse and the assumption of the fecal character by the undigested residue of 

 the food he had considered himself justified in advancing it as probable, that the Peyerian 

 glandulae are the special instruments for the elimination of decomposing matter from the 

 blood, and that it is their function to discharge this excrementitious product into the 

 alimentary canal. And the tendency to ulceration of these follicles, which shows itself in 

 typhoid fever, and other "poison-diseases," was cited by Dr. C. J. B. Williams ("Principles 

 of Medicine," p. 245, 3d Am. Ed.} in confirmation of this view. Having himself repeatedly 

 met with the follicles in the open condition, like Dr. Allen Thomson, and having been well 

 convinced that this is a normal state, he finds it difficult to receive the doctrine of Briicke 

 (espoused though it has been by Prof. Kolliker) as expressing the whole truth on this 

 subject, which is one that is well deserving of further investigation. 



"Medical Gazette," March, 1847. 



