CUTANEOUS AND MUCOUS FOLLICLES. 



[Fig- 177. Fig . i 78 . 



561 



A section of the small Intestine containing some Portion of one of the patches of Peyer's glands 



of the glands of Peyer, as shown under the micro- from the end of the ileum, highly magnified; the 



scope. These glands appear to be small lenticular villi are also displayed. (After Boehra.) 



excavations, containing, according to Boehm, a 

 white, milky and rather thick fluid, with nume- 

 rous round corpuscles of various sizes, but mostly 

 smaller than blood globules. The meshes seen in 

 the cut are the ordinary tripe-like folds of the mu- 

 cous coat, and not the venous texture spoken of 

 under the follicles.] 



is surrounded by a zone of openings like those of Lieberkuhn's follicles, which 

 lead, as do those, into tubular coeca. On rupturing the surface of one of the 

 white bodies, there is found beneath it a cavity, corresponding in extent with 

 the spot, and of considerable depth ; but this cavity has usually no excretory 

 opening; and the tubular follicles, by which it is surrounded, have no connec- 

 tion with it. The cavity contains a grayish-white mucous matter, interspersed 

 with cells in various stages of development. There is reason to believe that 

 at certain periods, an excretory orifice is formed, by a sort of dehiscence in 

 the wall of the cavity, through which the secreted product of the vesicle may 

 be poured forth. These glandulae may be likened, on this view, to the ulti- 

 mate follicles of the ordinary glands (e. g., the Mammary or Lachrymal); 

 except that the latter have a permanent communication with their excretory 

 duct. The membrane which covers in the cavity is extremely thin, and is 

 very liable to be destroyed by ulceration ; hence it is that, after inflammation 

 of the membrane, the patches of Peyer are seen as a congeries of shallow open 

 cells or follicles. The particular use of these bodies is entirely unknown.* 

 The general function of the Intestinal Glandulae has already been adverted to 

 ( 447). It is impossible, for obvious reasons, to collect their secretion for 

 analysis; but there are many reasons for regarding the Intestinal surface 

 (which may be considered in the light of an expanded gland) as a most import- 

 ant means of eliminating putrescent matters from the Blood; whether their 

 presence in it results from the normal waste of the system in health, or from 



* For more minute details regarding the structure of the intestinal glands, see the Dis- 

 sertation of Dr. Boehm, " De Glandularum Intestinarium Structure penitiori:" of which 

 an abstract will be found in the British and Foreign Medical Review, vol. i., and also in 

 Mr. Solly's work already referred to. 



