8 Florence R. Sabin. 



ueber das Lymphsystem discutirt zu werden pflegen, bietet wohl keine 

 ein so unmittelbares physiologisehes Interesse dar, als gerade die Frage 

 nach dem Ursprung der Lymphgefasse in den Korperorganen. Mag 

 man sich ueber die Bildung der Lymphe und ueber die bei ihrer 

 Fortbewegung wirksamen Krafte eine Theorie machen, welche man 

 will, so fordert diese als ganz unerlassliche Grundlage eine praezisere 

 Vorstellung von dem anatomischen Verhalten der ersten Wurzeln des 

 Systems, sei nun eine solclie Vorstellung wirklich aus der Beobachtung 

 entsprossen, sei sie nur hypothetisch angenommen:" It is without 

 question that a comprehension of the relations of the lymphatic capil- 

 laries depends on an understanding of the fundamental morphology 

 of the system. 



2. Lymphatics as Dilated Tissue Spaces. 



The relation of the lymphatics to tissue spaces formulated by von 

 Eecklinghausen was entirely in agreement with the early crude investi- 

 gations of foetal conditions recorded by Breschet (16). It was the 

 practically universally accepted idea up to 1900 that lymphatics arose 

 by the dilatation of tissue spaces caused by the fluid that exuded from 

 the blood vessels; that this dilatation of the spaces began in the 

 periphery, and that the vessels gradually approached the veins and 

 joined them. Thus the growth of the lymphatic vessels was thought 

 to be from the periphery to the center. This view was well stated in 

 1894 by Gulland (39), who found the lymphatics first in the subcu- 

 taneous tissue and then along the extremities in foetuses, human, 

 bovine and rabbit, between 3 and 4 cm. long, and thought that these 

 vessels subsequently joined the veins. He thought that the force of 

 the fluid in the tissues formed the lymphatics, so that they arose by an 

 entirely different method from his conception of the origin of blood 

 vessels (p. 467). 



3. Budge's Work. 



An account of the newer work on the origin of the lymphatic 

 system must begin with Budge (17-22). Budge was led to a" study of 

 the lymphatic system in birds through noticing the great variations 

 of the posterior lymph hearts in the adult (21). The posterior lymph 

 hearts had been seen in bird's by Panizza (103), A. F. J. Mayer 

 (quoted by Stannius) and Stannius (142). Budge had already begun 



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