OF THE ABSORBENT VESSELS. 131 



tion of their vitality, and is acribed by the very acute Brugmans 

 to a certain vita propriaJ 



" A great part of these lymphatics terminate in the thoracic 

 duct; not, however, those of the right arm, the right side of 

 the neck, the right lung, and the right portion of the diaphragm 

 and liver, which terminate in the subclavian vein of the same 

 side." Many other connections have been seen between absorb- 

 ents and veins. Mr. Bracy Clarke discovered communications in 

 the horse between the thoracic duct and lumbar veins g , and 

 Mr. Abernethy, Steno, Seiler, Mertrud, &c. traced lymphatic 

 vessels to veins ; Wepfer traced the absorbents of the broad 

 ligaments into the hypogastric veins ; Nuck, those of the arm 

 into the lumbar veins ; Lobstein, those of the spleen into the 

 vena portae ; Tiedemann and Gmelin, like many before them, 

 have propelled mercury into the vena porta3 by absorbents ; Mr. 

 Cruikshanks long ago remarked, that, in animals destroyed by 

 Violence, the lymphatics about the spleen and in the cavity of 

 the abdomen, in peritoneal inflammation sometimes the lacteals, 

 and in peripneumony the lymphatics of the lungs, are tinged 

 with blood, though no extravasation has occurred, and there- 

 fore he believed that lymphatics arise from the internal surface 

 of arteries and veins h ; the connection of the lymphatics with 

 the veins, in the four classes of vertebrated animals, has of late 

 years been demonstrated by Lippi, Fohmann, and Louth, and 

 in the Anatomical Museum of Heidelberg are numerous beau- 

 tiful specimens, showing this fact 1 ; Lippi k has shown that the 

 absorbents of the abdomen terminate abundantly in the branches 

 of the vena portae, as well as in the iliac, spermatic, renal, lumbar 

 veins, &c. in the venous trunks, and in the veins issuing from 

 conglobate glands, and become continuous with the capillary 

 veins ; indeed, that many terminate in the very pelvis of the 



f " Conr. Jer. Ontyd (Praesidente Seb. Just. Brugmans), De causa absorptionis 

 per vasa lymphatica. Lugd. Bat. 1795. 8vo. p. 45. 



v. Al. Van Hees, De causafunctionis absorbentis systematis lymphatici. ib. 1817. 

 4to. p. 38." 



B Rees's Cyclopaedia : Anatomy, Veterinary. 



h On the Absorbents, p. 50. 



1 Mr. Coulson's edition of Mr. Lawrence's translation of Blumenbach's 

 Manual of Comparative Anatomy, p. 172. 



k Illustradoni Jisiologiche e pathologiche del sistema linfotico-chttifero mediante 

 la scoperta di un gran numero di communications di esso col venoso, par Regolo 

 Lippi. Firenze. 1825. 



K 4 



