LYMPHATIC SYSTEM. 201 



be traced by their effects on the lymphatic vessels. A case of 

 this sort, in consequence of the bite of a gnat, was lately ob- 

 served by my ingenious friend, Dr. Maddocks, physician to 

 the London Hospital. This patient, as Dr. Haddocks informs 

 ine, had been weeding in a garden, and had been bit near the 

 root of her thumb, where a painful tumour appeared. Soon 

 after which one of the axillary glands inflamed and swelled, 

 and from the tumour of her thumb to the axilla, the ascent of 

 the matter could be traced by a painful ridge or cord, which 

 went on the fore part of the cubitus, and inside of the arm, 

 exactly in the situation of the lymphatic vessels shown in 

 Plate IV, fig. 2, ff, h, one of which seemed to be inflamed in 

 consequence of the absorption of the poisonous matter. 



I have likewise lately seen the gland just above the inner 

 condyle of the os humeri, as is represented Plate IV, fig. 2, d, 

 swelled in consequence, of a wound and suppuration on the back 

 of the middle finger. 



In ulcers of the legs, the matter is sometimes absorbed and 

 carried up the lymphatics, till it arrives at the glands in the 

 groin, where it occasions a bubo ; which bubo, as has already 

 been observed at page 129, differs from the venereal one in 

 being at the lower part of the groin, viz. in the glands, f, f } 

 Plate I, fig. 1. 



I have even seen the matter of an issue in the leg produce 

 such a bubo by absorption, and in this case too the matter 

 could be traced by a painful line in the inside of the thigh in 

 the course of the lymphatic vessels, represented in the same 

 plate. 



Matter formed in the joints, on being absorbed, likewise 

 produces such buboes. 1 



And milk which has stagnated in the breast creates a painful 

 swelling in the axillary glands. 



The axillary glands are likewise frequently observed to swell 

 in consequence of cancers in the breast ; 2 and it is found to be 

 of no use to extirpate the breast itself, unless the infected glands 

 can likewise be removed; for otherwise the cancerous humour 

 left in the glands may renew the disease; and indeed when 

 these glands are affected in consequence of a cancer, the ope- 

 ration of extirpation must be very precarious, as we can never 

 1 See Dr. Hunter's Medical Commentaries. 2 Monro, De Ven. Lymph. Valv. p. 92. 



