ABSORPTION. 



the medullary part, run out where they run between the follicular 

 cords, and finally throw themselves into the efferent vessels in the 

 region of the hilum. The efferent lymphatic trunks are less numer- 

 ous, but larger than the afferents. Thus the follicles and follicular 

 cords appear as islets which are plunged into a vast portal system, 

 which bathes them on every side. By confluence and capillarization 

 the lymphatics form a vast pouch around the glandular substance, 

 in which the current is slowed and the pressure lessened. In the 

 arterial supply it is seen that the follicular cords are pierced in the 

 center by an arteriole, just as the Malpighian corpuscles of the 

 spleen. The arteries reach the cortical layer, surround the follicles, 

 to which they furnish little branches which converge toward the cen- 

 ter like the spokes of a wheel towards the axle. These glands have 

 nerves which surround the follicles and give off finer branches reach- 

 ing the center of the nodular structure, where they appear to term- 

 inate in free extremities. 



Leucocytosis. Whether the glandular cells are fixed leucocytes 

 or derivatives of the mesodermic elements, they produce the white 

 blood-corpuscles. The leucocytes are more numerous in the efferent 

 than in the afferent vessel. There is a close relation between blood- 

 leucocytosis, glandular hypertrophies, and the number of mitoses. 

 Removal of certain important glandular groups diminishes the num- 

 ber of leucocytes. The gland-cells are generators of the lympho- 

 cytes, and the gland is a cytogenous gland like the testicle. The 

 gland specially produces microcytes (lymphocytes). 



Composition of the Lymph. 



Lymph is a diluted blood-plasma, and is found in the lymphatic 

 vessels, as well as in the extravascular spaces of the body. All the 

 cells of the tissues are bathed in lymph. Whilst the generation of 

 lymph may be held to be from the blood-plasma, yet the intravas- 

 cular tension may be increased by a flow of water from the plasma 

 into the lymph-spaces, or by a flow from the cells of the tissues into 

 the lymph-spaces that surround them. 



Lymph is an albuminous, colorless fluid, which contains lymph- 

 corpuscles; these are identical with the colorless blood-corpuscles. 

 Lymph is alkaline, has a specific gravity of about 1.015, and when 

 drawn from its vessels it clots, forming a colorless coagulum of fibrin. 

 The watery part of the lymph is known as the lymph-plasma, which 

 contains the three elements necessary for coagulation: fibrinogen, 

 fibrin-ferment, and calcium salts. It is very similar to blood-plasma. 



