ABSORPTION BY LACTEAL AND LYMPHATIC VESSELS. 



307 



trunks, into the receptaculum chyli. In their course, the lacteals pass through several 

 sets of lymphatic glands, which are here called mesenteric glands. 



The thoracic duct, into which the great majority of the lymphatic vessels empty, is 



FIG. 88. Stomach, intestine, and mesentery, with the mesenteric bloorf -vessel* and lacteal!}. (Copied and slightly 



reduced from a figure in the original work of Asellius. published in 1 (>_'>.) 

 A, A. A. A. A, mesenteric arteries and veins; B. B, B, B. B, B. B. B, B. B, lacteals; C. 0. C, C, mesentery; T), 1), 



stomach; K, pyloric portion of the stomach; F, duodenum; G. G, G, jejunum; H, H, H, H, H, ileiiui ; I, artery 



and vein on the fundus of the stomach ; K, portion of the omentuin. 



a vessel with exceedingly delicate walls and about the size of a goose-quill. It com- 

 mences by a dilatation, more or less marked, called the receptaculum chyli. This is 

 situated upon the second lumbar vertebra. The canal passes upward in the median 



