ORIGIN OF THE ABSORBENTS. 339 



Krause, on the lacteals of a human subject, that were found 

 distended with chyle. (See vol. ii. p. 69,) 

 The mode of origin by a mesh or net-work, is not only the 

 one which is best supported by the concurrent testimony of 

 recent observers, but appears also to have been that supported 

 by Mascagni. This appears to be demonstrated by the three 

 only modes in which the capillary absorbent vessels have been 

 made obvious to the eye. That of Mascagni, in which a serous 

 cavity was filled with a colored fluid, with which the absorb- 

 ents of the lining serous membrane filled themselves, and thus 

 became visible ; that of Lauth, which consisted in filling the 

 minute absorbents with mercury, and gently pushing it with 

 the handle of a scalpel towards their capillary extremities, in 

 which, as in the veins, the valves cease to exist ; and that of 

 Cruvielhier and others, which consists in puncturing superfi- 

 cially the surface of the skin, or of the mucous and serous 

 membranes, with the point of a mercurial injecting tube, when 

 the mercury will be seen gradually to dilate the orifice into a 

 little sac, and then to insinuate itself into the absorbent vessels. 

 The absorbents injected by either of these modes appear to 

 constitute a dense net-work or plexus of vessels, which com- 

 municate on the opposite side of the membrane with larger 

 absorbent trunks, in which valves begin to be visible. From 

 the injected membrane, the cuticle of the skin or the epithe- 

 lium of the mucous tissue may be removed by maceration, 

 without liberating the mercury, which 

 is thus shown to be confined not 

 merely in the cells of the cellular 

 tissue, but in a system of tubes. 

 Fig. 182, is a specimen of the 

 lymphatics of the mucous membrane 

 of the stomach, prepared in this way 

 by Breschet ; and fig. 183, page 343, 

 of the lymphatics of the mucous surface of the glans penis, and 

 of the skin of the scrotum. The vessels thus injected present 



* Fig. 182, is a representation of the origin of the absorbents of the stomach, 

 after Breschet. a, Superficial layer, b, Deep-seated layer. 



