280 



ABSORPTION LYMPH AND CHYLE. 



It diminishes in size from the receptaculum to its middle portion and be- 

 comes larger again near its termination. It occasionally bifurcates near the 

 middle of the thorax, but the branches become reunited a short distance 

 above. At its opening into the venous system, there is generally a valvular 

 fold, but according to Sappey, this is not constant. There is always, how- 

 ever, a pair of semilunar valves in the duct, three-quarters of an inch to an 



FIG. 89. Stomach, intestine and mesentery, nith the mesenteric bloo'J-vessels find Inctealx (copied and 

 slightly reduced from a figure in the original work of Asellius, published in 1628). 



A, A. A, A, A, mesenteric arteries and veins ; B, B, B. B, B. B, B. B. B, B, lacteals ; C, C, C, C, mesen- 

 tery ; D, D, stomach : E, pyloric portion of the stomach ; F, duodenum : G, G, G, jejunum ; H, H, 

 H, H, H, ileum ; I, artery and vein on the fundus of the stomach ; K, portion of the omentum. 



