ANATOMY OF LYMPHATIC AND LACTEAL VESSELS 



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The lymphatics of the small intestine, called lacteals, pass from the 

 intestine between the folds of the mesentery to empty, sometimes by 

 one and sometimes by four or five trunks, into the receptaculum chyli. 

 In their course, the lacteals pass through several sets of lymphatic 

 glands, which are here called mesenteric glands. 



Fig. 57. Stomach, intestine and mesentery, with the mesenteric bloodvessels and lacteals (copied 

 and reduced about one-halt from a figure in the original work of Asellius, published in 1628). 



A, A, A, A, A, mesenteric arteries and veins; B, B, B, B, B, B, B, B, B, B, lacteals; C, C, C, C t 

 mesentery ; D, D, stomach ; R, pyloric portion of the stomach ; F, duodenum ; G, G, G, jejunum ; 

 H, H, H, H, H, ileum ; /, artery and vein on the fundus of the stomach ; K, portion of the omentum. 



The thoracic duct, into which most of the lymphatic vessels empty, 

 is a vessel with delicate walls and about the size of a goose-quill. It 

 begins by a dilatation, more or less marked, called the receptaculum chyli. 

 This is situated on the second lumbar vertebra. The canal passes 

 upward in the median line for the inferior half of its length. It then 

 inclines to the left side, forms a semicircular curve something like the 



