190 LYMPHATIC SYSTEM. 



the valves to give way, so as to fill a few of the lacteals dis- 

 tinctly enough to be seen to divide into branches upon the 

 villi, and therefore to prove that they do not form a bag or 

 ampullula. 1 



Since therefore a network of lacteals is found upon the villi 

 of all these animals, from analogy we should suspect the same 

 in the human subject, whose villi are of the same shape, that 

 is, broad and flat, which figure would appear not a proper one 

 for an ampullula. 



The experiments from which the ingenious Lieberkiihn was 

 persuaded there was an ampullula, were first, the villi appear- 

 ing turgid with milk which had curdled in them, in such sub- 

 jects as had taken milk just before their death. 2 But whoever 

 has made experiments with injections must be convinced of its 

 being difficult to distinguish clusters of small vessels from bags, 

 when these vessels are not filled with fluids of a brighter 

 colour than milk or chyle ; and even in those cases where such 

 vessels were filled with vermilion (which is so much more vivid 

 and distinguishable) some anatomists have been misled ; par- 

 ticularly concerning those corpora globosa in the kidney, which 

 have been considered as bags or cryptse. But I have re- 

 peatedly observed, and have now by me some preparations 

 which prove that these corpora globosa are not uniform bags, 

 but convoluted arteries, which comes near to the idea that 

 Ruysch had of them (LXXXVII). Some ingenious anatomists 

 have warmly espoused a contrary opinion, and have not only 

 supposed the kidney to have follicles, but most other glands of 

 the body, particularly the breast or mamma, and the salivary 

 glands. But that they likewise have been deceived by a clus- 

 ter of small vessels will appear probable when we consider that 

 the corpora globosa in the kidney, which have by so many 



1 See Philos. Transactions, vol. lix, p. 213. 



2 De Villis Intestinorum, 2, 3. 



(LXXXVII.) Mr. Bowman has given an excellent account of the 

 structure and use of the Malpighian bodies of the kidney, with obser- 

 vations on the circulation through that gland. See * Philosophical 

 Transactions/ 1842, Part I, pp. 57 et seq. Among some of Hewson's 

 preparations at the College of Surgeons, are two good injections of these 

 glomeruli in the kidney of the lion and of the ass. 



