318 SPECIAL HISTOLOGY. 



ing to the lymph, as lymph-cells — which are there formed, 

 and subsequently conveyed away from the gland. I consider 

 them rather as an independent, stationary, glandular element, 

 standing, indeed, in the closest relation with the chyle, but not 

 necessarily forming a part of it, or passing into the blood. If 

 we ascribe to the alveoli of the lymphatic glands the function 

 of inducing a metamorphosis and changes in the lymphatic 

 fluid flowing through them, under the influence of the cells of 

 its pulp, which are manifestly in a continual process of deve- 

 lopment, of such a kind probably, that its elements are ren- 

 dered more capable of development, or new matters, such as 

 fibrin, are mixed with it, the reason is at once evident, why 

 the lymphatic fluid should form more cells after its passage 

 through the glands than previously. The well known cases also 

 of " white blood," in which, together with an enormous increase 

 in size of the lymphatic glands, a vast multiplication of the colour- 

 less blood-cells takes place (Virchow), may be explained in 

 accordance with the above view ; although, for the present, I am 

 not disinclined to assume, that although no constant and total 

 passage of the pulp of the lymphatic glands into the lymph 

 takes place, which from the anatomical conditions is utterly 

 impossible (considering the blood-vessels in the alveoli), never- 

 theless a sort of commixture of it from the alveoli contiguous 

 to the vasa efferentia occurs, so that the lymphatic glands, 

 after all, at least to some extent, appear to afford a site for the 

 formation of lymph-corpuscles. 



The lymphatics of the lymphatic glands retain all their 

 tunics up to the gland. But as they ramify in an arborescent 

 manner on the gland and become smaller, they lose the mus- 

 cular membrane, and enter the alveoli, possessing only a layer of 

 connective tissue with fine elastic fibres, and an epithelium. 

 The glands, at all events the larger ones, always have some 

 delicate nervous filaments composed of fine fibres, which enter 

 in company with the blood-vessels, and are lost to sight in the 

 interior. The ganglia in the lymphatic g'ands, mentioned by 

 Schaffner (' Zeitsch. f. rat. Med./ VII, 177), I have not been 

 able to find, nor is that author's description of the kind to 

 command much confidence. 



[The above-described structure of the lymphatic glands does 



