1066 
DR. H. WATNEY OH THE MINUTE ANATOMY OF THE THYMUS. 
Astley Cooper (25), and indeed by almost all anatomists, with the exception of 
Bichat (26), Berres (27), Bischoff (28), and Goodsir (29), until we come to quite 
recent times, when the methods of hardening the tissue had so improved, that 
Jendrassik (30), and Friedleben (3) had grave doubts of its existence; and 
Berlin (31), Klein (32), and Afanassiew (33), asserted that the thymus contains 
no cavity. 
Wharton (34), 1659, noticed that in young Oxen which were put to the plough, 
the thymus disappears much sooner than in those at rest. 
Haller (35), 1766, thought that the thymus is not entirely changed into fat, but 
lost in fat. “In adipe circumfuso sepelitur.” 
Hewson (10), 1777, first described the thymic corpuscles, and found that in size and 
shape they exactly resemble the central particles in the vesicles of the blood ; he 
attributed to them the destiny of becoming nuclei for the vesicles of the blood. He 
tied the lymphatics of the thymus of the Calf and the Dog, and found that they contain 
a great number of small colourless solid particles, such as are found in the fluid of the 
lymphatic glands. He suspected that the lymphatic vessels were possibly the excretory 
ducts of the thymus, and that the structure and uses of this organ are similar to those 
of the lymphatic glands, to which it may be considered an appendage. 
Bichat (26), 1803, said that the thymus is composed of a mass of little vesicles. 
Lucae (24), 1811, described the gland as divided into lobes, lobules, and alveoli 
(follicles). He noticed that the alveoli, when seen from the surface, have a polygonal 
area. 
Sir A. Cooper (25), 1832, gave drawings of the lobes of the Calf’s thymus, with the 
communicating vessel. (See his fig. I.) He found that the thymus consists of ropes, 
which can be unravelled, and which are disposed in a spiral manner ; he thought he 
recognised two large absorbent vessels, which run down the cervical portions and 
terminate in the innominate vein. 
Haugsted (1), 1832, confirmed Jacobson’s (19) observation as to the difference 
between the fat glands and the thymus, and demonstrated most clearly the increase of 
size in the thymus after birth; giving drawings proving both facts. He noticed that 
if thin layers of the thymus of infants are viewed by transmitted light, the central 
part of the follicles is more pellucid. He found the supposed cavity in the thymus to 
be hardly present in health. 
Gulliver (36), 1842, noticed a somewhat similar fact to that which had been related 
by Wharton (34), as he saw that, in overdriven Lambs, the thymus shrinks ; but that 
if the animals are afterwards well fed, the gland fills out again. Gulliver followed 
Hewson (10) in considering that this organ provides germs for the tissues of the 
blood. 
Bischoff (28), 1842, also considered that the function of the thymus is to form 
blood corpuscles. 
