1864.] Communication of Blood-vessels with the Lymphatics, 327 



X. On the Distal Communication of the Blood-vessels with the Lym- 

 phatics j and on a Diaplasmatic System of Vessels/^ By Thomas 

 Albert Carter, M.D., M.R.C.P., Physician to the Leamington 

 Hospital and Warwick Dispensary. Communicated by W. S. 

 Savory, Esq. Received June 2, 1864. 



(Abstract.) 



In this paper the author has recorded the results at which he has arrived 

 concerning the distal intercommunication of the hsemal with the lymphatic 

 system by means of injections thrown into blood-vessels ; he also describes 

 certain minute vessels and networks of vessels which can be shown by the 

 same means to exist in certain mucous membranes and elsewhere. These 

 he has named diaplasmatics. 



The author's attention was first particularly called to the relation which 

 the lymphatics bear to the blood-vessels, by observing that when the latter 

 are fully distended with a very penetrating injection, such injection often 

 finds its way into the lymphatics without the occurrence of ordinary extra- 

 vasation. 



He has thus injected the livers of three human beings and of three pigs 

 from the portal and hepatic vessels, the former (vessels) being filled with 

 Turnbull's blue precipitated in gelatine, and the latter with carmine simi- 

 larly treated ; and in each instance he has found that the injection had 

 gained entrance to the superficial lymphatics. 



In sections taken from the surface of the pig's liver, these vessels (which 

 may readily be distinguished from the blood-vessels by their knotted irre- 

 gular appearance and rapid increase and dimitmtion in size) are observed 

 in many instances to surround a lobule, throwing out loops and prolongations 

 towards its centre. A certain number of these prolongations, both in the 

 human liver and in the pig's, when traced are seen to diminish in size so 

 much as to be considerably less in diameter than the capillaries of the 

 organ, in which they appear to lose themselves or rather originate. Their 

 commencements in this part, it is acknowledged, are extremely difficult to 

 determine by simple inspection, on account of the underlying capillaries 

 being filled with injection of the same colour ; but in some instances (as, 

 e. g., where the pigment in the capillaries has faded) the author believes 

 that he has seen the actual anastomoses of the two sets of vessels. The 

 circumstance, however, which renders exact microscopic observation so 

 very difficult, is the one which affords the best evidence of the communi- 

 cation of the two systems, viz. that the minutest lymphatics are almost 

 invariably filled with injection of the particular tint seen in the capillaries 

 in close relation to them. Thus if the capillaries be red or blue, or any of 

 the intermediate shades of purple, the smallest lymphatics in the immediate 

 neighbourhood will be of a precisely similar colour ; which would appear 

 distinctly to show whence the lymphatics derive their supply of fluid. 



A human thyroid body which the author injected with carmine and 



