252 FLUID OF THE 



same proofs that the lymphatic glands secrete this white fluid, 

 and that it is carried from the glands by the lymphatic vessels, 

 that we have of glands in other parts of the body separating 

 different fluids, and having excretory ducts ; for if we cut into a 

 lymphatic gland we find a white fluid, and if a ligature be 

 made on the lymphatic vessel coming from that gland we find 

 a fluid of the same kind contained in those lymphatic vessels 

 (cxxi). This is as convincing a proof of the lymphatic vessels 

 being excretory ducts to the lymphatic glands, and as satis- 

 factory as that the hepatic duct is the excretory duct of the 

 liver. We know the liver secretes bile because we find it in 

 that viscus, and we know the ductus hepaticus is its excretory 

 duct, because we find bile contained in it. The proofs are 

 similar and equally conclusive. 



SECT. 18. The existence of a white, thick, mucus-like fluid 

 in the lymphatic glands has been long generally known to 

 anatomists, and is particularly remarked by M. de Haller ; l 

 but the properties of this fluid seem to have been entirely over- 

 looked and neglected. 



This may perhaps have been owing to the same cause that 

 the shape of the particles of the blood, till lately, has been 

 so little known, viz. the want of diluting this liquor ; for if 

 we examine this fluid of the lymphatic glands in the natural 

 state, we find it a homogeneous mass, discovering nothing of 

 its composition or properties. But if we dilute it with a solu- 

 tion of Glauber's salts in water, or with the serum of the blood, 

 and view it with a lens of the ^ of an inch focus, as formerly 

 mentioned in the experiments on the blood, we then observe 

 the following appearance. 



1 Succum glandulis conglobatis inesse, album, serosum lacte tenuiorem, in juniori 

 potissimum animali conspicuum, id quidem certura est. Eum, creinori sirailem dixit 

 Thomas Wharton, cinereum Malpighius, diaphanum Nuckius, album Morgagnus, 

 reete et ad naturam, ut puto, omnes. Haller, torn, i, p. 184. 



(cxxi.) I have never seen the fluid of the lymphatic vessels white 

 or opake, except in the lacteals and in the. absorbent ducts of the 

 thymus. The juice of the lymphatic glands ,may be slightly so, in 

 consequence of containing a greater proportion of corpuscles than 

 the fluid either of the afferent or efferent lymphatics/ and perhaps 

 when a ligature is placed on one of these last, its contents may become 

 more opake from an accumulation of globules. 



a Note CXLH. 



