280 THE MAMMARY GLANDS, BY C. LANGER. 



for the most part branch quite independently of them, and 

 hence it comes to pass that the small lobules of the gland give 

 off and receive their vascular supply at all parts of their peri- 

 phery. The capillaries of the small lobules form plexuses of 

 three dimensions (cubic), containing the acini in their rounded 

 or polygonal meshes. In thin sections, consequently, they are 

 seen to run in their slender inter-alveolar trabeculse. It may 

 easily be demonstrated that the capillaries of each lobule form 

 a closed plexus, only communicating with those of the ad- 

 joining lobules by the small arteries and veins. 



Fig. 206. 



Fig. 206. Reticular connective tissue from the wall of two acini, 

 with a few epithelial cells. System 9, immersion, Hartnack. 



The capillary vessels, again, supplying the ducts are quite 

 distinct from those of the stroma, and consist of fine tubules 

 that inosculate to form elongated meshes surrounding the large 

 ducts of the nipple in the form of a tolerably close, yet very 

 delicate, plexus. Vascular arrangements resembling those of 

 the erectile tissues do not, therefore, occur in the nipple ; for 

 neither the vessels of the stroma, nor those of the muscular 

 tissue, present any unusual calibre. The capillary loops of the 

 papilliform bodies of the areola proceed likewise from special 

 trunks running immediately beneath them, and giving off 

 elongated arches into their substance. The veins of the nipple 

 form an annular chain of anastomoses beneath the areola, the 

 well-known circulus Halleri. 



Nothing is at present known in respect to either the lymph- 

 atics of this gland, or of the mode in which the nerves dis- 

 tributed to it terminate. 



