666 



ABSORPTION. 



subject of an express work. According to him, the most numerous 

 exist between the lymphatic vessels of the abdomen, and the vena cava 

 inferior and its branches. So numerous are they, that every vein re- 

 ceives a lymphatic vessel, and the sum of all would be sufficient to form 

 several thoracic ducts. Opposite the second and third lumbar vertebrae, 

 the lymphatic vessels are manifestly divided into two orders: some 

 ascending, and emptying themselves into the thoracic duct; others 

 descending and opening into the renal vessels and pelves of the kid- 

 neys. Lippi admits the same arrangement, as regards the chyliferous 

 vessels; and he adopts it to explain the prompt- 

 Fig- 258 - itude with which drinks are evacuated by the 

 urine. 



Subsequent researches have not, in general, 

 confirmed the statements of Lippi. G. Rossi, 1 

 indeed, maintains, that the vessels, which Lippi 

 took for lymphatics, were veins. It would ap- 

 pear, however, that when Rossi was in Paris, he 

 was unable to demonstrate, when requested to do 

 so by M. Breschet, the very things, that he had 

 previously figured and described. Panizza, too, 

 affirms, that no direct union or continuity be- 

 tween the venous capillaries and lymphatics has 

 ever been made manifest to the eye, either in 

 the human subject or the lower animals: 2 and, on 

 the whole, the observations of Lippi as to the 

 alleged termination of lymphatics in various 

 veins of the abdomen have generally been 

 either rejected as erroneous or held to refer to 

 deviations from the normal condition. 3 It is 

 proper to remark, however, that, recently, Dr. 

 A. Nuhn, 4 Prosector at Heidelberg, has main- 

 tained, that there is a regular communication 

 between the abdominal lymphatics and veins, 

 and describes three cases of the kind which fell 

 under his own observation. In two of these the 

 lymphatics opened into the renal veins ; in the 

 third into the vena cava. The article contains 

 a good history of the views of different observ- 

 ers on the communication between the ab- 

 sorbents and veins. 



Lymphatics. We are perhaps justified in concluding with 



a, a, , a. Afferent and effe- Panizza, that anatomy has not hitherto suc- 

 rent lymphatic vessels proceed- cceded in determining, with physical certainty, 



ing towards thoracic duct, b, b. . . <=>' .- r J ,, t X 



Lymphatic glands. The arrows in what relation the sanguiierous and lymphatic 



indicate the dire i: ~ u: ~ u 



the chyle passes. 



h systems stand to each other, at their extreme 



1 Omodei's Annali Universali, Jan., 1826. 



2 Osservazioni Antropo-zootomico fisiologicbe, Pavia, 1833; and Breschet's Systeme Lym- 

 phatique, Paris, 1836. 



3 Quain's Human Anatomy, by Quain and Sharpey, Amer. edit., by Dr. Leidy, ii. 43, 

 Philad., 1849. 



4 Miiller's Archiv. fur Anatomie, u. s. w., Heft 2, s. 173, Berlin, 1848. 



