276 FORMATION OF 



ing these parts of our body, that the disease of a part should 

 not be attended with the destruction of the whole. 



SECT. 82. The lymphatic vessels, which arise from every part 

 of the body, have already been described as performing the 

 office of absorption, or taking all those fluids into the body, 

 by which alone the animal is supplied with nourishment for its 

 preservation and growth, and the lymphatics not only do this, 

 but they also assist in forming the red part of the blood. 



SECT. 83. Each lymphatic vessel is vascular, and, when 

 minutely injected, appears to have more blood-vessels than are 

 necessary for the nourishment and growth of that vessel. The 

 coat of each lymphatic is likewise muscular, and consequently 

 has a power of diminishing its capacity upon the application of 

 a stimulus. (See Note LXIV, p. 125). 



SECT. 84. The lymphatic glands through which the lym- 

 phatics pass secrete a fluid which, when examined with a 

 microscope (chap. II, sect. 19), exhibits numberless small solid 

 particles, exactly resembling in size and shape the central 

 particles contained in the vesicles of the blood (CXL). The 

 lymphatic vessels which arise from the cells of the lymphatic 

 glands, into which the central particles are secreted, we have 

 called (chap. II, sect. 17) the excretory ducts of the lymphatic 

 glands, which convey the secreted particles into the lymphatic 

 vessels which pass through the gland, and from thence they 

 pass on through the thoracic duct into the blood-vessels. 



SECT. 85. If we open a lymphatic vessel after it has emerged 

 from a lymphatic gland, we find not only a great number of 

 these central particles, but also many of the particles of the 

 blood completely formed (CXLI) ; that is, the central particle 



(CXL.) See Notes en, cv, cxxu, and cxxxvu. 



(CXLI.) Red corpuscles are certainly sometimes found in the lymphatic 

 vessels, and generally in those of the spleen of the horse and ox ; but 

 it would appear that the reddish colour of the splenic lymph is not 

 constant : see Note cxxxm, p. 2/3. Mr. Lane found the ruddy colour of 

 the horse's chyle due to the presence of red corpuscles ; and he and Mr. 

 Ancell a observed imperfect blood-corpuscles, and attributed the rose- 

 colour of the lymph to them, in. the large lymphatic vessels. The 

 thoracic duct of the horse often appears as a coloured tube from the 

 number of these corpuscles in the chyle, which, as described in the 

 Appendix to the English edition of Gerber's 'Anatomy,' p. 93, I have 



* Lectures on the Blood, Lancet, 1839-40, vol. i, p. 150 ; vol. ii, p. 152. 



