THE LYMPH-GLANDS. 



365 



called follicular bands (f f). The latter represent to a certain extent the inner- 

 most contents of the spaces, but in such a manner that they are smaller than the 

 spaces and nowhere touch the walls of the cavities themselves. If the cavities 

 of the gland be conceived as injected with a substance that at first has filled them 

 all, but later, by contraction, is reduced to half its size, one will have an approxi- 

 mate picture of the spatial relations of the follicular bands to the cavities of the 

 gland. The follicular bands contain the blood-vessels (b) of the gland within 

 them. About these there is deposited a rather thick cortex of reticular connective 

 tissue, whose meshes (x) are extremely delicate and fine, whose spaces are rich 

 in*lymph-cells and whose surface (o o) is so constituted of the condensed reticulum- 

 cells that a communication between the narrow meshes is still possible. 



Between the surface of the follicular bands and the inner wall of all the cavities 



Fio. 132. Part of a Lymph-gland: A, afferent vessel; B, B, lymph-path within the cavity of the gland; a, a, 

 column and septa bounding the cavity of the gland; f, f, follicular band of the cavity; x, x, its reticulum; 

 b, its blood-vessels; o, o, delicate reticular junction between the follicular band and the lymph-pains. 



of the glands lie the paths of the lymphatics (B B) . Perhaps they are lined by 

 an endothelium; their lumina are traversed by a rather coarse reticulum. 



The afferent-vessels (A), which spread out upon the surface of the gland, 

 penetrate the external capsule and pass over into the lymph-paths of the glandular 

 cavities (C). The efferent vessels, which exhibit large, almost cavernous anasto- 

 moses and dilatations in the vicinity of the gland, arise at other parts of the gland 

 directly from the lymph-paths. The latter, thus, to a certain degree represent 

 a dense interlacing network of capillary vessels, lying within the glandular cavi- 

 ties, arranged between the afferent and efferent vessels. 



The movement of the lymph on its way through the many-branched and 

 tortuous lymph-paths of the gland will be retarded and, on account of the resist- 

 ance to the current that the cellular elements, arranged in the paths, must offer, 

 will possess feeble propulsive power. The lymph-corpuscles, lying 11 



