ANATOMY OF THE MUCOUS COAT. 47 



brane, presents at least a degree of novelty, by determining, 

 with some precision, the whole number of the G astro- enteric 

 Follicles of the human body, and how they are in every instance 

 formed by meshes of veins, while the arteries enter only fprcon- 

 siderably into its composition, to an amount in some measure 

 comparable to the presence of the arteries in other erectile tis- 

 sues, as the corpus spongiosum and caverriosum penis. In the 

 latter it is familiar to every practised anatomist, that the 

 branches of the arteries are but small, as they terminate in the 

 cells of the penis, which are to be considered as only a modi- 

 fication of the incipient stage of venous trunks. If the corpus 

 spongiosum were in fact spread out into a thin and single mem- 

 brane, so as to line a hollow viscus, it would present no very 

 undue representation of what I have denominated the superfi- 

 cial venous layer of the alimentary canal ; it being also admitted 

 that within the circuit of every anastomosis, a follicle was 

 formed. Viewed on the preparations of the mucous membrane 

 of the small and large intestines which I have, these follicles 

 appear like puncta lachrymalia disseminated by thousands over 

 every inch square, and existing so invariably upon every part, 

 that, as I have stated, the smallest calculation of their numbers 

 puts them at from forty to fifty millions. 



It may now be represented, that it is the whole of this vas- 

 cular and follicular structure, endowed with vital actions the 

 most important to life, and presenting in the aggregate an area 

 of' about thirteen square feet, the size of a small breakfast ta- 

 ble; whose morbid derangements constitute the essential fea- 

 tures of cholera. It has been shown in some of my dissections, 

 that this apparatus in the progress of cholera is detached en- 

 tirely from the stomach and colon, in consequence of the exces- 

 sive actions going on in them. The small intestines also, in 

 some of my preparations, exhibit in patches a similar pheno- 

 menon; but as the entire observation has been presented to me 

 in its true light only since the disappearance of the disease, I 

 have had no means of ascertaining the extent to which they 

 ^suffer in this way. 



The anatomy of the muciparous system of the alimentary ca- 

 nal unquestionably requires a more exact attention than has 

 been heretofore bestowed upon it, especially so as to distin- 

 guish between that part which is really glandular, and the fora- 



