THE LACTEAL GLANDS. 275 



lacteal ducts have no sinuses, and are never so far developed 

 as in the female, inasmuch as they either correspond in form 

 with those met with in the new-born child, or, in larger 

 glands, are more branched, and furnished with a certain num- 

 ber of terminal vesicles, which, on account of their considerable 

 size (they are three times as large as the gland-vesicles in the 

 female), are not to be regarded as true gland-vesicles. In 

 rare, but well-established instances, the glands, even in the 

 male, have become so much developed as to be capable of 

 secreting milk. 



§211. 



Physiological remarks. — The lacteal gland, in its develop- 

 ment, follows the same course as the other cutaneous glands, 

 and is, as I find (' Mittheil. d. Zurcher nat. Gesells./ 1850, 

 No. 41) in accordance with Langer (1. c), originally (in the 

 fourth to the fifth month) nothing but a solid papillary pro- 

 jection of the mucous layer of the epidermis, which is invested 

 by a layer of denser dermal tissue (fig. 273, J ). In the sixth 

 to the seventh month, it throws out a 

 certain number of buds, and in this 

 way arise the first rudiments of the 

 subsequent lobes (fig. 273, 2 ). These 

 are, at first, nothing but minute pyri- 

 form- or flask-shaped processes of the 

 common rudiment of the gland, which 

 do not separate from each other un- 

 til towards the end of foetal life, at 

 which time they open externally; 

 whilst, at the same time, rounded 

 or elongated solid buds begin to ap- 

 pear at their ends, which at this time 

 are also solid. At the period of birth, 

 the gland measures from 1^ — 4'", and already distinctly 



Fig. 273. Development of the lacteal gland. 1. rudiment of the gland in a male 

 embryo, at five months : a, horny layer ; b, mucous layer of the epidermis; c, process 

 of the latter or rudiment of the gland; d, fibrous membrane around the same. 

 2. lacteal gland of a female foetus, at seven months, seen from above : a, central 

 substance of the gland, with larger (b) and smaller (c) solid outgrowths, the rudi- 

 ments of the large gland-lobes. 



