OF THE LYMPHATIC GLANDS. 153 



tion attacked the wound. If this was from absorption, then the lym- 

 phatics behind the great trochanter pass forward to the glands of the 

 groin ; if by sympathy, it is most probable that it is from their taking 

 the same course. 



Dropsies of the legs are always observed to be most swelled towards 

 the evening, and least so in the morning. This is generally attributed 

 to the legs being the most depending part, and that all the water natu- 

 rally falls to these, and by lying in bed it as naturally returns back 

 again, and diffuses itself over the whole body. This may often be the 

 case ; but I am persuaded that this is not always the case, and that the 

 swelling through the day arises from extravasation taking place in the 

 day, and that the subsiding of the swelling in the legs through the 

 night, is from absorption. 



This was certainly the case with my own leg ; for, first, the bandage 

 was so tight round the calf, as not easily to allow the water to pass up 

 into the thigh ; and, if it had soaked past in the night, it would have 

 been obliged to stagnate a little above this bandage before it could get 

 to the ankle, as it would be in some measure retarded by the bandage ; 

 but nothing of this kind happened. 



If this be the case, then the extravasation must be 'owing to the 

 small vessels in the weakened part not being able to sustain the column 

 of blood while the body is erect, or nearly so ; but when laid in a 

 horizontal position, the vessels are then able to support the force of the 

 circulation ; and then the lymphatics absorb this water already thrown 

 out in the day. 



Of Lymphatic Glands. 



Lymphatic glands become larger and larger towards the thoracic 

 duct. If lymphatic glands were guards upon the absorption, then 

 there woidd be no occasion for internal lymphatic glands ; or, if guards 

 upon internal absorption as well as external absorption, then they 

 would produce worse disease in themselves than that which they were 

 intended to prevent. I should imagine the glands are cellular, because 

 the lymphatic ones are filled when we blow into their substance. Now 

 if the substance of the gland was only ramifications, I shoidd expect 

 the veins and arteries would fill as soon as the lymphatics. But this 

 is not a sufficient argument ; because whether the lymphatics open into 

 cells, or are only branched, they make the largest part of the gland, 

 and are much wider than either arteries or veins. As to any use that 

 we know the lymphatic glands to be of, it seems to me immaterial 

 whether they are cellular or are divisions of the lymphatics ; for both 

 would seem to answer the same purpose. 



From the black mucus often hawked up in the morning, after being 



