CHAPTER II. 



Historical. 



The history of the Subepithelial Lymphatic Glands 

 is a history of neglect. 



The very existence of some of these structures was 

 unknown to early anatomy. The tonsils must have 

 been seen by the first physician who inspected a 

 patient's throat : but of the vermiform appendix the 

 earliest record seems to have been in 1524, by Berenger 

 Carpi (Kelynack), while it was not till 1677 that Peyer 

 described the agminated follicles in the intestines, and 

 it was as late as 1724 when Santorini was the first to 

 describe the pharyngeal tonsil. 



The part played by the subepithelial lymphatic 

 glands in disease was a comparatively late discovery in 

 Medicine, though it is probable that inflammation of 

 the tonsils was recognised early. According to Kely- 

 nack, a case of perforation of the appendix was 

 described in 1759 by Mestivier, but the frequency with 

 which the appendix is the starting point of abdominal 

 suppuration has only been realised within the last thirty 

 years. *'That enteric fever was an entity marked by 

 intestinal lesion was realised in the early part of the 

 Nineteenth Century" (Dreschfield, 1896). The harmful 

 effects of enlargement of the pharyngeal tonsil were 

 pointed out by Meyer, of Copenhagen, in 1868. 



It was still later before analogies began to be drawn 

 between the various members of the Subepithelial 

 Lymphatic Group. In 1876 Watney described the 



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