LYMPHATIC SYSTEM. 12!) 



between that bone and the internal belly of the gastrocne- 

 mius G to the inside of the knee F, where in this figure it dis- 

 appears, but may be seen in Plate I, fig. 2. This plexus, having 

 passed the inside of the knee, appears upon the thigh imme- 

 diately under the skin, and over all the muscles, as is seen in 

 fig. 1 e, from which it passes to the groin, where these vessels 

 enter the lymphatic glands. 



The lymphatic glands of the groin are six, seven, or eight 

 in number ; of these some lie in the very angle between the 

 thigh and the abdomen, and others lie a few inches down, on 

 the fore part of the thigh. The lymphatic vessels above de- 

 scribed enter the lowermost of these glands, which in the sub- 

 ject of Plate I, fig. 1, are four in number, viz. f } f, g,g : one 

 branch, however, avoids these glands, as at h, which after- 

 wards bends over at i to the gland k; from which go vessels 

 to the other lymphatic glands /, / that lie in the angle be- 

 tween the thigh and the abdomen. It is into these upper 

 glands alone that the lymphatic vessels of the genitals enter, 

 so that the venereal bubo, which arises in consequence of an 

 absorption of matter from these organs, is always seated in 

 those upper glands, and the lower glands /,/, g,g are never 

 affected, except by the regurgitation of the matter, or from 

 their vicinity to the glands first diseased, which very seldom 

 happens. And as it is the upper glands that are affected by 

 the absorption of matter from the genitals, so it is the lower 

 which are commonly first affected from the absorption of the 

 acrid matter of an ulcer, diseased joint, carious bone (in the 

 parts below these glands), a circumstance that may assist us in 

 the diagnosis of those two kinds of buboes ; remembering, 

 however, that this rule may be liable to an exception, from one 

 of the lymphatic vessels passing the lower glands, and only 

 entering the upper, as is seen at h in the same plate. 



The lymphatic vessels of the genitals having joined those of 

 the thigh, a network is formed, which enters the abdomen 

 under the edge of the tendon of the external oblique muscle, 

 called Poupart's ligament; one of these vessels is seen in Plate II, 

 b, b. This plexus on the inside of Poupart's ligament consists 

 of many branches, some of which embrace the iliac artery, of 

 which one is seen in Plate II, at c, c, but the greatest number 



9 



