•MW OF THE ABSORBENT VE8SELH. 



injected after death into the mesenteric veins, passing 

 into the cavity of the intestines, has little weight with 

 me in regard to a function which occurs during life ; 

 and much less weight can be allowed to the brass tube 

 with two legs and two branches invented by Lieberkuhn 

 to prove the existence of these passages. (C) The 

 assertion — that chyle has been seen in the mesenteric 

 veins,* requires farther investigation and proof; so 

 that I cannot believe that they carry any thing more 

 than blood, very carbonised and destined for the for- 

 mation of bile.f (D) 



428. The ultimate trunks of the lacteals, arising, 

 like the lymphatics, from the combination of a great 

 number of small twigs, % unite into the receptaculum or 

 cisterna chyli, — the appellation by which the lower and 



* Werner and Feller, 1. c. p. 12 sq. 



f There is a beautiful experiment which seems, at first sight, to favor the 

 existence of these secret passages, and for which I am indebted to the eminent 

 Leop. M. A. Caldani. In a lamb or kid, after hearty feeding, a ligature is 

 placed upon the vein corresponding with our left subclavian, and another, par- 

 ticularly tight, upon the mesentery, at its origin near the lumbar vertebrae. The 

 lacteals and lymphatics, between the ligatures, become very evident ; and 

 likewise the lymphatics ascending from the hind legs. At first, the lacteals 

 between* tf ie intestines and constricted mesentary swell, but they soon subside 



and disappear- 



This singular pli.viomenon, however, appears to me not owing so much to 

 anv secret passages for 0"» chyle, as to a retrograde motion of it into the 

 intestines; the valves, under thes*> circumstances, not oflering sufficient oppo- 

 sition. Vide R. Nath. Gottl. Schreger, Fragmcnta Anatomka tt Physiologica. 

 Fasc. 1. Lips. 1791. 4to. p. 26. 



Flor. Caldani, Riflessioni topra alcuni punti di it* nuuvo siilema dr' MM 

 assorbenti, ffc. Padua. 1792. 8vo. p. 58. 



And his uncle, commended above, Leop. M . A. Caldani, id lys Commentary 

 U> be found in the Mrmorit Ittte ttelT A<ad. di Padova. 1804. ltdV 



♦ Sheldon, 1. c. Tab. v. 



