216 LYMPHATIC AND 
** I] consiste (ce procédé) & percer superficielle- 
ment le tissu cutané avec l’extremité d’un tube 
capillaire en verre ou en acier, de fagon a 
n'intéresser que |'épiderme, pour arriver au 
réseau vasculaire situé entre cet épiderme et le 
chorion. On obtient ainsi l’injection de réseaux 
admirables de vaisseaux lymphatiques.” I 
have frequently produced the appearance here 
alluded to in all parts of the body: a fetus 
answers best for the purpose, but the proper 
lymphatics are never filled from these supposed 
net-works of lymphatic vessels. They are 
clearly nothing more than the spaces around 
the bases of the papille of the skin, from which, 
as putrefaction commences, the cuticle sepa- 
rates more readily than from their apices, con- 
sequently little canals are left around the pa- 
illa, which communicate with each other and 
orm a pretty exact resemblance to vessels fill- 
ing rapidly as the mercury runs around the 
bases of the papilla. ‘The appearance:can only 
be produced at a certain stage of putrefaction 
when the cuticle is about to separate. On 
removing the cuticle, the pretended vessels im- 
mediately disappear; but on the glans penis, 
on the scrotum, and on the skin of the nipple 
the removal of the cuticle will not disturb the 
net-works of vessels which may be there in- 
jected; moreover from these the lymphatic 
trunks can always be filled. I am also dis- 
posed to think, contrary to the received opinion, 
that the serous membranes do not universally 
present this superficial network of lymphatics ; 
there are at any rate parts of these membranes 
where I have never seen these vessels injected, 
while there are others in which anatomists in- 
variably succeed in shewing them; and for the 
mere purpose of absorbing the fluid secreted 
by the serous sacs, there appears to me nothing 
extraordinary in the supposition, that those por- 
tions of the membrane only which are most 
conveniently situated for the purpose should be 
endowed with the proper organization to effect it. 
The mode of procedure, however, adopted by 
Fohmann and others to display the incipient 
lymphatic net-works is open to serious abjee* 
tions, and calculated without great circumspec- 
tion to lead into error. The capillary blood- 
vessels will often be implicated in the wound 
required to pierce the lymphatic net- work, con- 
sequently the injection may be found in the 
arterial and venous as well as in the larger 
lymphatic branches leading from the part. To 
succeed to any extent many punctures may be 
required, and in all probability some of these 
will conduct the injection into the three sets of 
vessels; but I have several times by the first 
puncture succeeded in injecting a net-work of 
vessels on the glans penis, which has conveyed 
the injection at once into the lymphatic 
branches on the body of the penis, and into 
these vessels only. The cellular tissue will 
also readily receive the injection, and where 
the cells are very small and uniform, as is the 
case with the umbilical cord, they resemble 
very much a net-work of vessels distended 
with quicksilver; and although Fohmann ad- 
mits these to be cells, yet from their regularity 
he has been led to consider them a part of the 
LACTEAL SYSTEM. 
lymphatic system. In the same cat . 
be classed the supposed lymphatic cells of the 
cornea observed by Arnold and by Miiller. 
The submucous cellular tissue also is fre 
quently arranged in little cylindrical cells whiel 
communicate with each other, and these cells 
on receiving the mercury put on the appearane 
pretty exactly of a net-work of put 
lymphatic vessels are not found conveying th 
injection away from them to the nearest lym 
phatic glands, which I imagine should be the 
proof required before we admit any vessels: 
cells to belong to the lymphatic system, ho 
ever beautifully displayed by our injection 
The subserous tissue is open to the same 
mark, and I can hardly offer a better instance 
of what appears to me to be an error ari 
from this source, than by quoting Fohman 
own words in reference to what he deseribe: 
the lymphatics of the brain. Les vaisse 
lymphatiques des enveloppes des masses 
trales du systéme nerveux sont tres faciles” 
démontrer, surtout au cerveau et au cervel 
Lorsqu’on enfonce une lancette entre la pit 
mére et l’arachnoide, et qu’on insuffle le canal 
que l’on vient de pratiquer, on voit paraitre un 
réseau lymphatique interposé entre ses 
tuniques, réseau formé de rameaux d'un calibr 
plus considérable que dans les autres tissus dt 
corps; cependant leurs parois sont si foible 
qu'elles se déchirent presque aussitot qu’on 
introduit le mercure.” With respect to 
universal net-work of lymphatics attributed t 
the lining membrane of the heart, and to th 
of the arteries and veins, I cannot admit, 
the injections of a few minute canals 
quicksilver on the lining membrane of the 
heart in the horse, by Lauth, and similar it 
jections by Cruveilhier and Bonamy, can 
received as demonstrative: the injection 
not traced from them to a distinct lymp 
vessel, armed with valves and no ‘its 
course towards a lymphatic gland; these mie 
nute canals might have been capillary blood- 
vessels, or, as Breschet observes in his exph 
nation of the plate which he gives from 
of these supposed vessels, “ Nous pensons 
qu'ils sont uniquement constitués par des la 
cunes du tissu cellulaire.” om 
In concluding what I had to say of the 
origin of the lymphatic vessels, a subject 
inextricably mixed up with our preconcei 
physiological notions, I ought, to 
offer some apology for advancing im an art 
of this nature any opinion peculiar to mys€ 
I mean in reference to curtailing the e t 
which the lymphatic system will be found t 
exist inthe organism. My own mind has beet 
forced to this conclusion after some s 
attention to the subject, both from anatomic 
and physiological considerations. ua) 
It has appeared to me in the first place, that 
anatomists who have especially devoted their 
time to this interesting subject of late years, 
have not yet fairly freed themselves from the 
influence of the Hunterian views with resp 
to the part performed by the lymphatic vessel 
as well as by the arterial capillaries, in eff 
ing the growth and habitual nutrition of the 
i 
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