LYMPHATIC SYSTEM. 203 



may preserve the constitution from the infection. It is also 

 probable that the venereal poison might be prevented from 

 entering the constitution, if immediately upon the appearance 

 of a chancre the patient would submit to the excision of that 

 chancre, or to have a caustic applied to it. In like manner, 

 since it is known that when the cancerous matter is once ge- 

 nerated, whether in the mamma, testis, or any other gland, that 

 such matter, on being absorbed, will infect the other parts of 

 the body ; is it not therefore a strong argument in favour of the 

 early extirpation of cancers, that the longer they are suffered 

 to remain, the more probability there will be of the cancerous 

 humour being taken up by the absorbents, and spreading the 

 infection ? 



As the lymphatic vessels pass through the lymphatic glands 

 in their way to the thoracic duct, when these glands are ob- 

 structed, the lymph, not being able to get into that duct, is 

 retained in the extremities ; thence we so often see dropsies the 

 consequences of diseased lymphatic glands ; which dropsies can- 

 not be cured till the obstruction of the gland be removed. But, 

 as I have already observed, the lymphatic vessels do not con- 

 stantly pass through glands, but some of them pass by their 

 sides ; thence it is possible that a gland may be perfectly ob- 

 structed, and yet the lymph may get by the collateral branch 

 of a lymphatic into the thoracic duct, and not be retained in 

 the extremity so as to occasion a dropsy or redema. In like 

 manner, a gland may be perfectly eroded, or may be cut out, 

 sometimes without the lymph being thereby prevented getting 

 into the thoracic duct. And it may also happen, that the ve- 

 nereal or other poison may, upon being absorbed, pass into 

 the constitution by one of these lateral branches without en- 

 tering a lymphatic gland or inflaming it. That this is probable 

 the reader may believe, upon looking over the plates, parti- 

 cularly Plate II, where the mercury appears to have passed 

 from the groin the whole length of the trunk without entering 

 a lymphatic gland. From which fact may be understood how 

 the venereal poison sometimes enters the constitution, and 

 produces the lues without occasioning a bubo, an instance of 

 which I saw lately. And the variolous matter introduced by 

 inoculation, although frequently producing inflammation and 

 swelling of the lymphatic glands, yet is not always attended 



