168 THE MICROSCOPIST. 



quently rupturing by its weight the thin, lymphatic vessels 

 and reservoirs. The first-named gentleman, in his researches 

 on the lymphatics of reptiles, employs in place of the usual 

 injecting tube of Walter (used with the mercury), a small 

 silver syringe, together with a kind of trocar, of which the 

 canula is formed from the quill of the wing-feather of the quail 

 or partridge, the trocar being a tolerably large-sized needle, 

 the point of which has three facets. When desirous of in- 

 jecting the lymphatic system of a lizard, tortoise, &c., he re- 

 marks : " I seize with a small pair of forceps the mesentery, 

 close to the vertebral column, where the reservoir of the chyle 

 is situated, and I introduce into it the point of the trocar ; I 

 then retain the quill and withdraw the needle from the tube. 

 This done, I seize with the small forceps the quill, and intro- 

 duce into it the small extremity of the syringe, and push the 

 piston with a force always decreasing." He recommends 

 colored wax, mixed with nut-oil, for the injection. 



