THE FOETAL INTESTINES AND LIVER. 
123 
render the preceding physiological view a matter of demonstration. In no 
instance, however, have I succeeded in detecting these vessels in the mesentery 
of the human foetus, though I have perceived them distinctly in a calf of seven 
months. A case has been however recorded by Mons. Adelon, in his work on 
Physiology, where the lacteals were observed in a child at the period of birth 
distended with chyle. His words are : “ En examinant les vaisseaux du me- 
sentere, dans un enfant qui venait de naitre avec l’abdomen ouvert, on a trouv6 
ces vaisseaux pleins de chyle*.” 
My attention was next directed to discover the source of this albuminous 
matter in the intestines, which I conceived could only be derived from the 
pancreas, the liver, or the duodenum itself. With respect to the pancreas, 
that organ remains so small during the whole of the foetal state, that it would 
appear incapable of forming so large a quantity of matter as exists in the 
intestinal canal. On the other hand, the duodenum presents still greater diffi- 
culties to the solution of this question ; for it seems improbable that this portion 
of the alimentary canal can perform simultaneously the office of secreting and 
absorbing the same matter ; to say nothing of the anomaly which in this 
case would take place, of a mucous membrane forming albumen. From 
having observed in every instance the same orange-coloured fluid, in the 
small intestines, collected in great abundance near the orifice of the ductus 
communis choledochus, and taking into consideration the magnitude of the 
foetal liver, and the large supply of blood which it receives from the umbilical 
vein, it appeared to me reasonable to infer that this viscus must be the source 
of the matter in question. Additional weight was given to this conclusion 
by having detected, in two instances, in the hepatic duct, the presence of a 
fluid possessing, not only some of the sensible, but also the chemical properties 
of that which was found in the duodenum. In general, the hepatic and com- 
mon ducts of the liver have been found empty, or have contained too minute 
a quantity of fluid to be collected for chemical investigation ; but in the two 
instances above mentioned it existed in unusual abundance, and was pressed 
out upon a plate of glass without mixing with the bile of the gall-bladder, a 
ligature having previously been applied around the cystic duct. This fluid of 
the hepatic duct was of a light straw-colour, and much less viscid than that 
* Adelon, Physiologie de l’Homme. Tom. iv. p. 476. 
