LYMPHATIC AND LACTEAL SYSTEM. 
necessary to enter more fully into the Hun- 
terian theory of absorption. 
The Hunters, Monro, and their followers 
Cruickshank, Elewson, and Sheldon, conceived 
that the lacteals and lymphatics formed one 
great system of vessels by which alone absorp- 
tion was effected in the living body, either for 
the purpose of collecting new materials, or for 
the removal of the old ; consequently, that these 
vessels were essential agents in the growth and 
habitual nutrition of the structures ;— that 
whenever any of the solid or fluid components 
of the body, whether of a healthy or morbid 
character, disappeared, their removal was 
effected by the lymphatic vessels; this in- 
cluded the ulcerative process, which they 
considered as exclusively carried on by these 
vessels. Many ingenious experiments were 
eee to disprove absorption by the veins. 
uids of various colours impregnated with 
musk and other odours were thrown into the 
intestines of living animals, and were after- 
wards detected in the lacteals, but not in the 
veins, and imbibition was considered impos- 
sible in the living structures. These views 
were generally received throughout Europe, 
and have been acquiesced in almost to the 
present day. Our phraseology, written or 
oral, whether in reference to Pathology, 
Physiology, or Anatomy, is evidently still 
imbued with them. This theory of the func- 
tions of the lymphatic system necessitated a 
corresponding anatomical disposition in the 
mode of origin, as well as in the general ar- 
rangement of these vessels. They were re- 
quired to be universal for the purposes of 
growth and nutrition ; wherever there was the 
artery to deposit, there must be lymphatic to 
absorb; and as imbibition was inadmissible, 
they were endowed, as a matter of necessity, 
it open mouths, by which they were said to 
commence from all serous and from all mucous 
surfaces, including the interior of all the visceral 
cavities, the serous linings of the arteries, veins, 
and even of the lymphatics themselves, the 
synovial surfaces of the joints; the surface of 
the skin, the mucous linings of the alimentary 
canal, of the aerial, urinary, and other pas- 
sages, of the excretory ducts, and from the in- 
terstitial cellular tissue of the whole organism. 
It was admitted that the orifices of the lymph- 
atic vessels could not be shewn; that they 
eluded our senses by their transparency and 
extreme minuteness ; but on the villi of the in- 
testine, the commencing lacteals were supposed 
to be detected, turgid with chyle, and their 
mode of origin by patent orifices was described 
by more than one anatomist. An analogous 
arrangement at their commencement was ad- 
judged to the lymphatics, without any further 
investigation directed specially to these vessels. 
Cruickshank thus describes the appearance 
of the supposed lacteal orifices on the villi, 
seen in a female who died suddenly seven or 
eight hours after a full meal. “ In some hun- 
dred villi, I saw a trunk of a lacteal forming 
or beginning by radiated branches, The ori- 
fices of these radii were very distinct on the 
_ surface of the villus, as well as the radii them- 
213 
selves, seen through the external surface pass- 
ing into the trunk of the lacteal; they were 
full of a white fluid. There was but one of 
these trunks in each villus.” He en also 
that Dr. Hunter examined them under the 
microscope, and counted as many as fifteen to 
twenty orifices to each villus. According to 
Lieberkuhn, the lacteal commences on the 
apex of each villus by one or more orifices 
leading to an ampullula situated near the apex 
of the villus, from whence one lacteal branch 
proceeds through the centre to the base of the 
villus. The ampullula, he states, is lined by 
a spongy cellular tissue, which he conceives is 
subservient to absorption. With respect to the 
orifices, his words are: “ Quod autem unum 
saltem adsit foraminulum in cujusvis ampul- 
lula apice, certo examine mihi constat: in- 
terdum tamen, licet rarissime, plura ut in pa- 
pillis mammarum, vidisse memini.” Sheldon 
admits Lieberkuhn’s description of the orifice 
of the lacteal vessel, and of the ampullated ap- 
pearance of its commencement from the villus ; 
but it appears to me, on looking at Shel- 
don’s plates, and reading his description of the 
ampullule, that he as well as Lieberkuhn, 
whose plates he has copied, have mistaken the 
mucous follicles of the intestines for the am- 
pullated villi. Speaking of the ampullule, Shel- 
don says, “ I have seen them of different forms, 
most commonly bulbous, as represented by 
Lieberkuhn. I have also seen a number of 
ampullule filled with chyle, sometimes form- 
ing clusters, as represented in plate I., while 
in other parts of the small intestines [ have 
found them solitary, and projecting beyond the 
villi, as may be seen in several of the figures 
in plate I.” Hewson has seen a net-work of 
lacteals as well as of bloodvessels on the 
villus, but no ampullule; he states that the 
orifices of the lacteals can only be discerned 
when the villus is rendered turgid and erect 
by the fullness of the bloodvessels. In refer- 
ence to these orifices, he says: “ It might be 
here objected that these were only lacerations 
of the villi, but I am persuaded they were not, 
from having, on repeatedly examining them, 
observed the pores or orifices very distinct and 
empty ; whereas, were they lacerations, I think 
I shots have seen the injection in them, as 
the villi were so much injected by it.” These 
are the data upon which has been founded the 
opinion that the lacteals and lymphatics arise 
every where by open mouths. I have myself 
examined under the microscope the villi of 
various animals destroyed at different periods 
after a meal, for the purpose of detecting the 
mode of origin of the lacteal vessels. I have 
looked at them for hours together before and 
after the bloodvessels had been filled to great 
minuteness, but have never been enabled to 
discover orifices on the apices, or on any 
other part of the villus, and I can adduce the 
names of a host of modern observers of consi- 
derable celebrity, Rudolphi, Panizza, Haasse, 
Lauth, Fohmann, Breschet, Miller, Treviranus, 
and others, who deny the existence of any such 
orifices. Magendie and Cruveilhier conceive 
that the chyle must enter the lacteals by ori- 
