124? THE FUNCTION 



thought there might be,) were about fifteen or twenty in each 

 villus ; and in some, I saw them still more numerous." c 



M. Cruveilhier opened a man who had died with scrofulous 

 disease of the mesenteric ganglia and coats of the lacteals and 

 intestines, the latter being ulcerated. The lacteals were dis- 

 tended with both a cheeselike substance and another like cream. 

 This circumstance displayed them fully. From the floating 

 margin of the valvulae conniventes, innumerable lacteals ran 

 straight and parallel to each other; their numbers were such, 

 that the cellular membrane between the layers of the mucous 

 membrane almost seemed to consist of them. They, few or 

 more, united, and terminated, sometimes at nearly right angles, 

 in long vessels, which ran pretty much in the direction of the 

 valvulae conniventes at their fixed margin, and each of these 

 passed a considerable way under the peritoneal coat without 

 connection, not forming a network, as is usually represented. 



M. Cruveilhier states, that some papillae of the intestines have 

 black summits, and in these he could never detect a lacteal: 

 that others have yellow summits, and in the centre of such he 

 has found a lacteal, thread-like, conical, or bulbous, according 

 to its degree of distention. The papillae, each with its lacteal, 

 project and float about in water like the fibres of roots. He 

 has never detected the orifices/ 1 



" The trunks just mentioned run some inches along the surface 

 of the intestines, under the external coat, sometimes meandering 

 in an angular course, before they reach the mesentery." 



The lacteals are abundantly supplied with valves. 



" In their course through the mesentery they run into the 

 mesenteric glands" (or ganglia,) " of which there are two series. 



c Anatomy of the Absorbing Vessels, p. 59. 



d Anatomie Pathologique du Corps Humain. Deuxieme livraison, p. 1. sqq. 

 Paris, 1830. 



