308 CIRCULATORY SYSTEM. 



accident of this kind, in asserting that the lacteals went to the 

 liver. 



The Absorbents of the Female Mammae, like their arteries 

 and veins, are superficial and deep; the former attend the ex- 

 ternal thoracic blood vessels, and the latter the internal mam- 

 mary. The superficial arise from the circumference of the nip- 

 ple, from the skin and cellular membrane, and according to the 

 injections of Mr. Cruikshank, communicate freely with the ve- 

 sicles of the tubuli lactiferi. They run towards the axilla, 

 having sometimes to pass through some glands which are situ- 

 ated half way; they then enter the first series of glands of the 

 axilla in their direction, and afterwards others successively, 

 until they terminate in the lymphatic trunks of the upper ex- 

 tremity, high up in the arm-pit. Some few of these superficial 

 vessels ascend over the pectoralis major to some glands in the 

 neck, just above the clavicle. 



The deep absorbents of the mammae arise from their thoracic 

 face, and penetrating the intercostal spaces, join the absorbents 

 that attend the internal mammary artery. 



Of the Absorbent Glands in the Thorax. 



There are, as mentioned, a few small glands in the intercos- 

 tal spaces near the heads of the ribs between the internal and 

 external intercostal muscles, intended to receive the lymphatics 

 of these spaces. There are also several small ones situated on 

 the front of the dorsal vertebrae, along the aorta and the oeso- 

 phagus, in the posterior mediastinum. There are also from six 

 to ten along the internal mammary artery; and some others in 

 the anterior mediastinum, along the sternal face of the pericar- 

 dium. They are said to be very rarely affected by disease. 



The most considerable and striking glands in the thorax are 

 those called Bronchial or Pulmonary, which receive the absor- 

 bents of the lungs. They cluster about the bifurcation of the 

 trachea, and follow the bronchia for some distance into the sub- 

 stance of the lungs. They are from ten to twenty in number, 

 and vary in size from an inch to a few lines in diameter. Till 

 puberty they have a reddish colour, but afterwards they be- 



