342 THE LYMPHATIC SYSTEM, BY F. V. RECKLINGHAUSEN. 



ment of organization ; and even within a very recent period it 

 has been sought to establish the view that the lymph follicles 

 and the lymphatic glands are the only seats of origin of the 

 lymph corpuscles, and that these continue to increase by fission 

 after their entrance into the lymph path ; but such processes of 

 division have not been observed in any trustworthy manner, 

 and I have only once had an opportunity of directly observing 

 under the microscope how out of a lymph cell a young lymph 

 corpuscle situated near the nucleus was suddenly ejected; I was 

 not, however, able to ascertain how it originated. The forma- 

 tion of lymph cells in the follicles of the lymphatic glands, 

 on the other hand, can at least indirectly be demonstrated ; 

 for the lymph which is carried by the vasa efferentia from the 

 glands is always far richer in cells than that which is flowing 

 towards them, and moreover the lymphatic vessels which come 

 from the intestinal follicles, and especially from the Peyer's 

 patches, furnish a lymph containing a far greater number of 

 cells than the rest of the lacteals (Kb'lliker). The follicular 

 substance of the lymphatic glands is probably to be regarded 

 as the chief formative centre for the lymph cells; it would, 

 however, be going too far to say that the lymph corpuscles 

 proceed exclusively from the lymphatic glands. The very pre- 

 cise observations of Herbst and Teichmann show that cells 

 are already contained in the lymph of man and mammals before 

 it has traversed the lymphatic glands. In all probability such 

 corpuscles proceed from the connective tissue in which the lym- 

 phatic capillaries are distributed, and in the form of contractile 

 connective tissue corpuscles may easily have migrated from 

 the serous canals into these capillaries. It is impossible to as- 

 cribe the office of the formation of lymph corpuscles exclusively 

 to the follicular apparatus, or even to the lymphatic glands, 

 because, so far as we at present know, true lymphatic glands 

 are absent in the Amphibia, notwithstanding the abundance of 

 cells in their lymph. 



According to this, the question of the arrival of the lymph 

 corpuscles in the peripheric plexuses of the lymphatics is con- 

 nected with the question of the origin of the migrating con- 

 nective tissue cells. In obtaining a reply to these inquiries, 

 the researches very recently made by Cohnheim, and subse- 



