GLANDS. 439 



ated epithelium, in the upper portion of the uriniferous tubes, 

 that it would be perfectly unjustifiable for observers again to 

 call these two points in question* 



The statement of Mr. Bowman, which has met with most 

 opposition, is that made as to the entrance of the Malpighian 

 capillary plexus into the cavity of the true capsule. Some 

 observers have denied the correctness of this description, on the 

 simple ground of the anomalous position in which the blood 

 vessels would be placed, were such an arrangement the true 

 one. This objection, however, is insufficient to disprove the 

 accuracy of Mr. Bowman's explanation, since in the liver 

 there is every reason to believe that the vascular and s- 

 creting elements of glands are intimately associated. Again, 

 some observers, not satisfied with Mr. Bowman's description, 

 have given others. 



Thus Gerlach * says that the Malpighian capsule is not, as 

 Mr. Bowman described it, a blind termination of a uriniferous 

 duct, but a retraction or introversion, a diverticulum of the 

 same structureless membrane which forms the uriniferous 

 tubes ; also, " that when the Malpighian capillary network 

 is closely examined, after the capsule has been entirely de- 

 tached from it, we see it in its whole extent covered by a 

 thick layer of nucleated cells, which are continued from the 

 inner wall of the capsule upon the Malpighian vessels ; and 

 the latter lie introverted within a layer of cells, like an in- 

 testine within the peritonaeum." f 



Gerlach's description is assuredly incorrect : the views of 

 the structure of the Malpighian body, entertained by Bidder J, 

 although they approach more nearly to the truth, are also in- 

 accurate : he considers that the glomerulus, or vascular plexus, 

 is inserted or pushed into the expanded portion of the urini- 

 ferous canal ; this on its part embracing and surrounding the 

 glomerulus. According to this view the glomerulus would still 



* Beitrage zur Structurlehre der Niere, von Dr. Joseph Gerlach, prakt 

 in Mainz (Mayence), Muller's Archiv, 1845. 



f Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, Oct. 1847. 



| Ueber die Malpighischen Korper der Niere, von F. Bidder in Dorpat, 

 Muller's Archiv, 1845. 



N N 



