ABSORBENTS OF THE INTESTINES. MESENTERIC GLANDS. 357 



some being very minute, and others eight or ten lines in diame- 

 ter. They are generally placed at a small distance from each 

 other, and are most numerous in that part of the mesentery 

 which is nearest to the spine. They are almost always at 

 some distance from the intestines. They appear to be precisely 

 like the absorbent glands in other places. 



These absorbent vessels, in their course frequently divide 

 into branches ; which sometimes go to the same gland, some- 

 times to different glands, and sometimes unite with other 

 absorbent vessels. As they proceed, they frequently enlarge in 

 size. When they have arrived near the spine, they frequently 

 form three or four trunks, and sometimes one or two ; which 

 proceed in the course of the superior mesenteric artery, until 

 they have arrived near to the aorta. Here they either pass 

 into the thoracic duct, or descend and join the trunks from the 

 inferior extremities, to form the thoracic duct. The absorbents 

 of the great intestines are not equal in size to those of the small ; 

 but they are numerous. They enter into glands, which are 

 very near, and in some places in contact with the intestine ; 

 and are commonly very small in size. The vessels which arise 

 from the caecum, and the right portion, as well as the arch of 

 the colon, unite with those of the small intestines; while the 

 vessels from the left side of the colon, and the rectum, proceed 

 to the lumbar glands. 



The absorbents of the intestines are frequently injected with 

 mercury ; but the injection does not proceed to their termina- 

 tion with so much facility as it does in other vessels of the same 

 kind. They have, however, very often been seen in animals 

 who were killed for the purpose after eating milk ; and in several 

 human subjects who had died suddenly during digestion. The 

 description of the origin of the lacteals, quoted in page 44 of 

 this volume, from Mr. Cruikshank, was taken from a subject 

 of this kind, of which an account is given in his work on the 

 absorbent vessels. 



It is worthy of note, that in several instances, in which the 

 lacteals were thus found distended with chyle, the glands in the 

 mesentery were also uniformly white. 



