IX. 



THE LACHEYMAL GLANDS. 

 BY FRANZ BOLL. 



GENEEAL STEUCTUEE. The lachrymal glands of Man and 

 Mammals agree in all essential points of structure with the sali- 

 vary glands (see chapter xiv., vol. i.), and belong, therefore, to 

 the so-called acinous type of glands. Like the salivary glands, 

 they are subdivided by a richly developed system of frequently 

 decussating septa, which are given off from the capsule, and 

 dip into the substance' of the organ, into a number of polyhe- 

 dric bodies of the most diverse form, but in general of tolerably 

 constant size ; and these septa, when examined under the micro- 

 scope, are seen to be composed of loose fibrillar connective tissue. 

 The principal portion of the polyhedric bodies, which in a strict 

 sense we would characterise as the proper parenchyma of the 

 gland, is seen in transverse sections to be almost exclusively 

 composed of alveoli and bloodvessels. It is only in rare in- 

 stances that we are fortunate enough to exhibit in one and 

 the same section of a parenchymatous body the excretory 

 duct together with the accompanying vessels and nerves. All 

 these structures, the trunks of which enter at the hilus of the 

 gland, run collectively imbedded in the loose connective tissue 

 of the septa^ from whence they branch off usually at right 

 angles into the parenchymatous bodies, accompanied for a 

 short distance only by connective-tissue fibrils. Apart from 

 these remains of the so-called interstitial tissues, the acini 

 themselves contain no fibrillar connective tissue. 



2. THE ALVEOLI. The form and dimensions of these bodies, 



