CHYLIFEROUS APPARATUS. 



637 



villi; the lacteals Fig. 249. 



and bloodvessels 

 forming a close net- 

 work ; but he could 

 not detect them in 

 the parietes of the 

 follicles of Lieber- 

 klihn. Their ori- 

 gin is almost im- 

 perceptible ; and, 

 accordingly, the 

 nature of their 

 arrangement has 

 given occasion to 

 much diversity of 

 sentiment amongst 

 anatomists. Lie- 



berktihn 1 affirms, Chyliferous Vessels. 



that, by the micro- 

 scope, it may be shown that each villus terminates in an ampullula or 

 oval vesicle, which has its apex perforated by lateral orifices, through 

 which the chyle enters. The doctrine of open mouths of lacteals and lym- 

 phatics was embraced by Hewson, 2 Sheldon, 3 Cruikshank, 4 Hedwig, 5 and 

 Bleuland, 6 and by some of the anatomists and physiologists of the present 

 day ; 7 but, on the other hand, it has been contested by Mascagni, 8 and 

 others; whilst Rudolphi, 9 Meckel, 10 and numerous others 11 believed, that 

 the lacteals have not free orifices ; but that in the villi, in which ab- 

 sorption is effected, a spongy or sort of gelatinous tissue exists, which 

 accomplishes absorption, and, being continuous with the mouths of 

 chyliferous vessels, conveys the product of absorption into them. 

 Bichat conceived them to commence by a kind of sucker or absorbing 

 mouth, the action of which he compared to that of the puncta lachry- 

 malia or of a leech or cupping-glass; and lastly, from the observation, 

 often made, that different coloured fluids, with which the lymphatics 

 have been injected, have never spread themselves, either into the areo- 

 lar tissue, or the parenchyma of the viscera, M. Mojon, 12 of Genoa, 

 affirmed, that lymphatics have no patulous orifice, and that they take 



1 Dissert, de Fabric. Villor. Intest. passim. Lugd., Bat., 1745. 



2 Experimental Inquiries; edited by Falconer, Lond., 1774, 1777, and 1780, or Hewson's 

 Works, Sydenham Society's edit., p. 181, Lond., 1846. 



3 The History of the Absorbent System, &c., p. 1, Lond., 1784. 



4 Anatomy of the Absorbing Vessels, 2d edit., Lond., 1790. 



5 Disquisit. Ampull. Lieberkxihnii, Lips., 1797. 



6 Exper. Anatom., 1784; and Descript. Vasculor. in Intestinor Tennium Tunicis, Ultra]., 

 1797. 



7 See Henle, Allgemeine Anatomic, u. s. w. s. 569, Leipz., 1841. 



8 Vasorum Lymphaticorum Corporis Humani Historia, &c., Senis, 1787; and Prodrome 

 d'un Opera sul Sistemo de Vase Linfatice, Siena, 1784. 



9 Anatomisch. Pliysiologisch. Abhandlung., Berlin, 1802. 



10 Handbuch, u. s. w. translated by Jourdan and Breschet,' p. 179, Paris, 1805. 



11 F.Arnold, Lehrbuch der Physiologic des Menschen, Zurich, 1836-7; noticed in Brit, 

 and For. Med. Rev., Oct., 1839, p. 479. 



12 Journal de la Societe des Sciences Physiques, &c. Nov., 1833. 



