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Show Oflbe particular Dis/ribI/timz (ft/ac Absorbent Vessels. OFTHI: PARTICULAR DISTRIBUTION 149 nor as the arteries, two and two. But, besides these, there is a net-work of absorbents compleatly surrounding the toes. The two lateral ahsorbents accompany the deep-seated arteries; the net-work upon the outside belong to those which accompany the cutaneous veins. They form four great divisions; the first arises from between the great toe and the one on its out- side, whcre the saphena major commences, and consists of six or seven vessels; they rttn Over the top of the foot, with that vein, towards the fore OF THE ABSORBENT VESSELS THEMSELVES, part of the inner ancle; from thence they rttn, in company with the vein, towards the inside of the knee, where they are joined by others, presently to be described. The second division, which I have seen consisting some- times ofeight or ten vessels, arise about the middle of the inner edge ofthe IN THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE BODY. foot, pass behind the inner ancle, and, running over the inside of the calf of the leg, join the last-described vessels on the inside ofthe knee. The third division, consisting offive or six vessels, arise near the little toe, run over the outer and upper side of the foot, in the direction of the outer au- ABSORBENTS OF THE LOI'VER EXTREMITY. ele; when they come near it, they divide into two; one part cross over the anterior part of the tibia, and go likewise to the inside of the knee, where I HAVE, in a former part of this work, demonstrated that the trunks ot the absorbents are at least double the number of the larger arteries. Some have imagined that this superiority in number did not extend to the minute they join the two former di ions.--It happened once, that when I was injecting this plexus with quicksilver, I injected a portion of the skin to great minuteness, the mercury having run contrary to the valves, into ex- branches; but the annexed engraving of the deep-seated lacteals will stifli- cicntly demonstrate that this superiority in number is kept up there also. I ceeding fine extremities of the absorbents. The part where this happened, as well as the vessels from whence it was injected, are seen in plate I. have occasionally seen, immediately under the common integumcnts on the. top oi the foot, innumerable ramifications of the absorbents, and exactly the same appearance as in the ramification of arteries themselves. Bartholin and Stem) appear first to have seen something of these vessels in qua- left leg-From the tmion of these three divisions, a grand plexus is formed, consisting of fourteen, sixteen, or twenty trunks, which still continue to accompany the saphc‘na major,- that is, to run obliquely from the inside of the knee to the middle of the groin; there they commonly go drupcds; but Van Home was the first who saw them in the human subject. into the different inguinal glands already described. But, in the most This I take on the authority of I-Iallcr : " Ea vero in httmano crurc osten- tlit Johannes Van Home." The large absorbents of the lower extremity successful injection that I ever made ofthese vessels, they terminated in one gland, as will be seen in plate I. It frequently happens, that two are formed into two sets, superficial, and deep-seated; the superficial set or three of these trunks pass by the glands of the groin, and are accompany chiefly the cutaneous veins, and the deep seated accompany the arteries. trunk' The cutaneous veins of the lower extremity form two principal one of these is named saphena major, and the other saplicna minor. not inserted into any gland till they have passed under Paupart's ligament. Part of‘thc last division, viz. that coming from the little toe, join another which arises from the middle of the outer edge of the foot, where the sa- The greater number of the cutaneous absorbents accompany the saphena major. Some absorbents arise from the sides ofthe toes, in the same manner phena minor commences, and accompanjing that vein, pass behind the outer |