GENERAL ANATOMY OF THE GLANDULAR SYSTEM. 77 



cavity was opened similar in extent to the white body itself, 

 in which was found a grayish white mucous matter, composed 

 of particles smaller than the ordinary particles of mucus. Ac- 

 cording then to Boehm and Miiller, there are not, in the 

 healthy state, in the patches of the so called Peyer's glands, 

 any large follicles with open mouth or cells, but merely sacculi, 

 the nature of which is unknown. 



Fig. 141, p. 74, is a representation after Boehm, of one of the 

 solitary glands of the small intestines too often confounded 

 with the glands of Brunner, and which is precisely similar 

 in structure and appearance, to one of the bodies in the patches 

 of Peyer, with the exception that its surface is more thickly 

 studded with villi.* 



General Anatomy of the- Glandular Tissue, 



Any original structure that discharges from the blood-vessels 

 a fluid different from those which they naturally contain, may 

 be considered as glandular. The function or process by which 

 such fluids are derived from the blood-vessels is called secre- 

 tion. 



A structure of this kind seems to exist in very different 

 situations : for it is distinctly circumscribed in many of those 

 bodies commonly denominated glands, which are of a very 

 precise form ; and it is also diffused on some very extensive 

 surfaces. The gastric liquor, a most important secretion, is 

 probably discharged from the vessels which open, like exha- 

 lents, on the internal surface of the stomach,f and not from any 

 circumscribed bodies, which are generally denominated Glands. 



The name of gland is theoretically applied to several bodies 

 which cannot be proved to secrete any fluid whatever ; and 

 also to those bodies connected with the absorbent vessels, which 



* Each of the white bodies of the glands of Peyer as well as the solitary 

 glands, were considered by Boehm, not as glands or follicles, but closed vesicles. 

 More recently, however, Krause of Hanover, and Dr. Allen Thompson, have 

 occasionally found them provided with open orifices, independently of disease. 

 p. 



f The gastric juice is now with greater probability, believed to be a secre- 

 tion from the tubular follicles of the stomach. p. 



7* 



