126 LYMPHATIC SYSTEM. 



these facts it may be understood why the posterior half of 

 the diaphragm is more readily filled from the peritoneum than 

 the anterior. 



Demonstration of the Lymphatic System of the 

 Diaphragm by Injection. In a large or middle-sized rabbit, 

 which has been kept from sixteen to twenty hours without 

 food, ten cubic centimetres of a warm, five per cent, solution of 

 Prussian blue are injected into the abdominal cavity through 

 a small canula, with the aid of a glass tube drawn out at one 

 end. The liquid is allowed to flow in of itself. After three 

 hours and a half, the animal is bled to death by opening the 

 carotid artery, or killed by strangling. As soon as the body 

 is cool, the pleural cavity is opened, the cava ascendens is liga- 

 tured just before it enters the heart, while a second ligature is 

 tightened round the aorta, oesophagus, thoracic duct, and vena 

 azygos. The vessels having been divided above the ligatures, 

 the whole of the thoracic viscera are removed. With a lens the 

 arrangement of the vessels above described may now be made 

 out, without removing the diaphragm. To obtain permanent 

 preparations, the peritoneal cavity must be opened, and the 

 suspensory ligament divided as before directed, the animal 

 being placed aslant. The vena cava and the cardia having 

 next been divided between the liver and the diaphragm, the 

 serous ligaments which connect the left lobe of the liver, the 

 stomach, and the spleen with the diaphragm, are severed, so 

 that these organs are completely detached. Thereupon the 

 abdominal surface of the centrum tendineum is brushed with a 

 camel-hair pencil moistened with warm water, after which the 

 ring of bone, cartilages, and soft parts, to which the diaphragm 

 is attached all round, is separated from the rest of the body, 

 immersed for a few minutes in silver, and washed iu water. 

 Those parts which are intended for microscopical examination 

 can then be cut out and covered in glycerin. Anilin and milk 

 may be used in the same manner as Prussian blue, but do not 

 yield such certain results. 



Another method of injecting the tymphatics of the diaphragm 

 may be mentioned, which is, however, not so successful. The 

 liquid employed consists either of one or two per cent, solution 

 of Prussian blue, in which a partial fine precipitation has been 

 determined by the addition of a small quantity of alcohol, or 

 of anilin with milk. A rabbit is bled to death by opening the 

 crural artery. A bent tube is then secured in the trachea, which 

 is connected with the apparatus for artificial respiration. The 

 abdominal cavity is then opened and the suspensory ligament 

 divided, as well as the fold of serous membrane which connects 

 the left lobe of the liver with the diaphragm. The cardia having 

 been exposed and tied, and a ligature passed round the vessels 

 contained in the omentum minus and the vena cava below the 



