32 SPECIAL HISTOLOGY. 



Corresponding with their structural similarity is the resem- 

 blance in the secretion of the tonsils and that of the lingual 

 follicles, though the former is not easily obtained pure on account 

 of the tonsils also receiving the ducts of mucous glands. It is a 

 greyish white mucous substance, which, however, so far as I have 

 been able to observe, contains no mucus, but is composed either 

 of cast-off epithelial plates alone, or of a mixture of these with 

 cells and nuclei, perfectly identical with those contained in the 

 parietal follicles of the tonsillar cavities. How these cells are 

 formed and whence they arise, I know not. It would seem 

 probable that they proceed from follicles which have burst, 

 a process which may really occur in man, though from what 

 is observed in animals we can hardly assume their dehiscence 

 to be a normal process. 1 



[In man, it is quite impossible, in a vast number of cases, to 

 find the follicles which we have described in the walls of the 

 tonsils, a circumstance which appears to me to be explained by 

 the frequent morbid changes to which these organs are subject. 

 In fact, in the course of inflammations of the tonsils and their 

 sequela, the contents of the follicles appear to alter, the follicles 

 themselves becoming distended, and finally bursting. The closed 

 sacs, filled with purulent or caseous masses, which are described 

 in diseased tonsils, when they do not exceed a certain size, may 

 be nothing else than such follicles ; and by their bursting they 

 may yield those masses of secretion which are accumulated in 

 the larger cavities. It thus happens, that the normal structure 

 is frequently no longer recognisable in the walls of the tonsils 

 and that we find, at most, recently opened follicles, or more 

 usually nothing but a granular mass interpenetrated by fibres 

 and vessels, with remains of papillae and of epithelium. 



On the other hand, however, the frequent pathological de- 

 generations have this advantage, that if we happen to hit upon 



1 [In the Mikroskopische Anatomie, B. II. H. II., p. 46, Professor Kolliker adds 

 a few points to the account here given of the structure of the tonsils. In man, race- 

 mose glands are not unfrequently met with external to the tonsils, and prohably open 

 in them; and in the Calf, a considerable number of such glands may be found between 

 the lobes of the organ. In opposition to Frerichs (Wagn. Handw. III., p. 745), 

 Kolliker states that he has "not yet" found solitary glands like those of the intestine 

 in the mucous membrane of the mouth. — Eds.] 



