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Show The Lymphatic Glands. [7°] 71 in quadrupeds, frequently, they are collected and clustered into one mass, CHA l'. so as to resemble the pancreas. It was this circumstance which misled Asellius, and made him mistake the conglomeration of the lymphatic glands XIV. at the root of the mesentery, in dogs, for another pancreas; which anato- T/Jc Lympbatic Glands. I roasicktv observed, that Herophilus was supposed to have seen the lacteals, because he described veins on the mesentery, which did not, like the greater number, terminate in the liver, but, st; atlsuwa‘n mac (re/4.12am, in certain glandular bodies. These bodies are in fact, as much a part of the absorbent or lymphatic system, as the ganglions are a part of the nervous system. Searccly have the lacteals left the intestine, and reached the me- sentery, before they enter these glands. The Latin medical writers have termed them glands, from some supposed resetnblance to nuts; and in our vulgar language this idea appears to be still kept up, for they are commonly termed kernels. These bodies are not only found on the mesentery, but in a great many other parts of the body. Their number is various in dif- ferent bodies. As the lymphatics and laeteals, of which they form a part, were not known to the ancients, one is not suiprizcd to find them assigning to these glands the ridiculous office of supporting, like so many cushions, the larger blootLvessels, at those places where they were dividing into smaller branches: and indeed, though we know something more of their nature, and structure, and diseases, we know no more of their real use than the ancients. As these glands inform us, however, of the passage of infectious matter into the blood; and as from their state we are enabled to judge of the presence or absence of other diseases; the knowledge of them is of great importance in the practice of medicine; and it becomes neces- mists, for some time after, distinguished by the name of Pancreas Asellii. This eonglomeration of lymphatic glands sometimes takes place in the hu- man body. I have found the lymphatics of the legs terminating chiefly in one gland, in place of terminating, as usual, in twelve or twenty, as may be seen in the figure annexed. The colour of the lymphatic glands is also various in different parts of the body, and on different occasions. In the younger animal, even on the mesentery, they have more of a red colour, and become paler with age, Immediately under the skin, they are redder than within the abdomen or thorax; and, like the external muscles, are also stronger. The glands of the thigh or arm will sustain a large column of mercury without bursting; whilst the glands on the mesentery, or on the lumbar vertebra, easily burst. viscera of the abdomen and thorax, and tender than that of the external the lungs are commonly of a blue In this respect, whose texture muscles. The colour. Some these last resemble the is much more delicate glands at the root of have supposed this co- lour depended on that of the substance of the lungs, which is very fre- quently blue. They have said, that this substance is perpetually changing: the absorbents remove it; and, in its passage through their glands, it gives them the blue colour. I do not object to the supposition of the substance of the lungs being constantly changing, or that it is absorbed by the lym- phatic vessels, and passes through their glands; but I conceive this change to take place so slowly and gradually, and in such minute particles, at the same time they are blended with such a quantity of common lymph, trans- sary to describe them on these accounts, as well as that the description of the lymphatic system would be imperfect, without a particular account of parent and colourless, that it is impossible their colour can ever be owing the glands. black; and another conjecture has been formed, respecting the cause of These glands are generally of an oval shape; and are of va- to such a cause. their blackness. The glands at the root of the lungs are also frequently These glands, it has been said, often pour out an ink-co- rious sizes, from the twentieth part of an inch to about an inch in diame- ter: from disease they frequently become four or five times that size ; now loured fluid, when cut into. and then still larger. Their shape is not always oval; sometimes they are globular, sometimes round and flat, sometimes of a triangular figure; and this to be owing to the particles of soot floating in the atmosphere of great cities, which being absorbed by the lymphatics of the lungs, pass through their In This I have frequently seen. They allege |
