366 ABSORBENTS OF THE ARM AND UPPER PART OF THE TRUNK. 



As they proceed upwards, they incline towards the anterior 

 surface of the fore-arm ; so that by the time they have arrived 

 at the elbow, almost all of them are on the anterior surface. 

 The absorbents on the anterior part of the hand are not so 

 numerous as those on the back. Sometimes there are digital 

 branches from the fingers, and an arcus in the palm ; but this 

 bow is not formed by one large absorbent, analogous to the 

 ulnar artery. On the contrary, its two extremities are con- 

 tinued over the wrist, and pass on the fore-arm like the 

 absorbents. 



At the elbow some of them often pass into one or two small 

 glands, which are very superficial ; but the whole of the 

 absorbents, somewhat reduced in number, as some of them 

 unite together, pass along with the blood-vessels into the hollow 

 of the arm-pit, where they enter the axillary glands. There 

 are generally one or more vessels which pass in the course of 

 the cephalic vein, between the pectoral and the deltoid muscle, 

 and enter into some of the glands under the clavicle. 



There are almost always several glands in and near the 

 axilla. Some of them are very near the great blood-vessels ; 

 sometimes one or more of them are much lower ; sometimes 

 they are to be found under the pectoral muscle. They are 

 commonly not so large as those of the groin, and are surrounded 

 with fat. 



The deep-seated absorbents originate also at the fingers, and 

 soon accompany the branches of the arteries. Those which 

 attend the radial artery, originate on the back of the hand, and 

 also in the palm, where they are associated with the arcus 

 profundus. They go up with the radial artery to the elbow, 

 and sometimes pass through a small gland about the middle of 

 the fore-arm. 



Those which attend the ulnar artery, commence under the 

 aponeurosis palmaris, and go with the artery to the elbow ; at 

 the bend of the elbow they are generally joined by one or 

 more, which accompany the interosseal artery; there they 

 unite, so as to form several trunks, which pass up to the axilla 

 with the humeral artery. They sometimes pass through one 



