46 ORGANS OF DIGESTION. 



through them, but, on the contrary, admits of a dried prepa- 

 ration in that state, the villi being completely effaced.* 



Taking into consideration these several objections to the the- 

 ory of the follicles being secreting orifices, it appears to me 

 that a better 'idea of their use is called for, which suggestion 

 is submitted to the profession, with the hope that a more ca- 

 pable person will remove the difficulty, by additional confirma- 

 tion of preceding theories, or by the invention of a new one : 

 for my own part, I am much inclined to adopt the opinion of 

 their absorbing faculties. It is generally conceded that the 

 erection and prehension of the Fallopian tube is produced by 

 a vascular turgescencc, in which the veins, from their number, 

 must execute an important part; in like manner, as these folli- 

 cles are formed in the midst of veins, their orifices only be- 

 come erect and patulous by the distention of those veins, and 

 cannot be seen, especially in the small intestine, unless an in- 

 jection has succeeded fully; but the erection of these veins du- 

 ring digestion puts the follicles in a similar condition ; there is, 

 therefore, some ground of inference, that the act of the Fallo- 

 pian tube in conveying a germ, and of a follicle in conveying 

 into the thickness of an intestine congenial matter, may be 

 analagous. 



Notwithstanding the facility with which w r e can detect these 

 follicles, I have failed entirely under various means of exami- 

 nation, in finding any orifices to Peyer's glands, in the dried 

 intestine: they appear to be merely small lenticular excavations! 

 in its substance, and wherever a cluster of them exists, it dis- 

 turbs the arrangement of the villi, and gives to them a scatter- 

 ing unequal distribution. I would also suggest very respect- 

 fully to anatomists whether our knowledge in regard to them 

 is sufficiently exact to render farther inquiry useless? for my 

 own part it appears that this subject requires some additional 

 attention. 



The above view, relative to the structure of mucous mem- 



* In these and other microscopical observations, I owe much to my young 

 friend, now Demonstrator of Anatomy, Dr. Paul Beck Goddard, who has ac- 

 quired an accuracy and skill in such matters deserving of confidence. 



t This observation has been confirmed in Germany by Boehm, who has come 

 to the same conclusion. He says that they contain a white milky and rather 

 thick fluid, with numerous round corpuscles of various size, but mostly smaller 

 than blood globules. Am. Journ. Med. Sc. vol. xxi. p; 218. 



