MODE OF ORIGIN OF THE CAPILLARY LYMPHATICS. 313 



versed by fine canals, the serous canaliculi, which are directly 

 continuous with the lymphatic vessels. These canals, in many 

 organs, form plexuses, so that portions of them appear to be 

 branched in a stellate manner exactly resembling the connec- 

 tive tissue corpuscles. These last however, are not, as Virchow, 

 Kolliker, and Leydig supposed, fused with the walls of the 

 lymphatic vessels, but occupy the interior of the serous canali- 

 culi, so that from this point they may extend into the lumen 

 of the lymphatic vessels. Moreover, the serous canaliculi are 

 not provided with a special wall, and are consequently not 

 tubes, on which account they are to be distinguished from the 

 serous canals of Kolliker, but are rather to be regarded as 

 excavations in the remaining substance of the connective tis- 

 sue. They do not, however, represent and on this account my 

 view is to be distinguished from that of Briicke and Ludwig 

 mere fissures between the specific components of the connective 

 tissue, but are the interstices of the fibrous fasciculi and la- 

 mellae of connective tissue, cemented to one another by a 

 tenacious, homogeneous, firm material in which the serous 

 canaliculi are buried. Their form and arrangement, whilst it is 

 not independent of the form of the interstices, is yet not 

 altogether identical with it, but peculiar, and one not entirely 

 determined by the arrangement of the several morphological 

 elements of the organ. On my view, therefore, it cannot be 

 admitted that the commencement of the lymphatics are, as 

 Ludwig imagines, simply lacunae, whilst, on the other hand, it is 

 equally opposed to the view that they constitute closed mem- 

 branous tubes, as is maintained by the adherents of the doctrine 

 that they owe their origin to the connective tissue corpuscles. 



When organs composed of connective tissue, and recently 

 removed from the body, are treated with solution of nitrate of 

 silver, the solid parts alone become stained, whilst spaces and 

 channels in the tissue remain uncoloured; the lymph and 

 bloodvessels coming into sharp relief as colourless tracks. In 

 the connective tissue itself, stellate, unstained figures make 

 their appearance, which are consequently spaces, though not 

 altogether empty, since, by this mode of treatment, connective 

 tissue cells become dimly visible in their interior. His main- 

 tained that the silvered tracings of the cornea agree with the 



