ON THK INTESTINAL VILLI. 303 



XXII.— THE .STRUCTURE AND FUNCTIONS OF 

 THE INTESTINAL MIJJ.— (Plate IV.) 



^H{. CuuiKSiiANK, in treating of the orifices of the Lacteals 

 and Lymphatics,* states that he and L)r. William Hunter 

 observed the oj)enings by which the lacteals communicated 

 with the cavity of the gut in portions of the intestine of a 

 woman who died after eating a hearty supper. The two 

 preparations of the intestine on wliich these anatomists made 

 their obsei'vations, came into the possession of the College of 

 Surgeons in Edinburgh, as part of the collection of the late 

 Sir Charles Bell. 



I removed one of the villi from ^Ir. Cniikshank's prepara- 

 tion, and had no difficulty in recognising what had been 

 described and figured by the original owner of the preparation. 

 With a low power the extremity of the villus appeared 

 bulbous and opaque. With a higher power I observed that 

 this opacity was due to the existence, at the extremity of the 

 villus, of a number of vesicles of different sizes. The larger 

 vesicles were pretty uniform in size, and about twenty in 

 number. The smaller were of different sizes, and more 

 numerous, and appeared gi-adually to pass into the granular 

 texture of the attached extremity of the villus. No blood- 

 vessels could be detected, but along the neck of the villus 

 distinct traces of two or more opaque lacteals were visible. 

 The vesicles and the lacteals, Avhen viewed by transmitted 

 light, were of a light brown colour ; but when examined as 

 opaque objects, they stood out of a dead white appeamnce, 



• Williiiin Cruiksliank, Th( AiuUomu of (he Absorbing VaaeJs of tht Uumnn 

 Body, 2d ed. 1790, pagp 56. 



