On the sudoriparous and lymphatic glandular systems; the vital nature of their functions in preparing the conditions necessary to venous absorption, and the effect of their derangement in the production of the various diseases ascribed to malaria / by Robert Willis.

Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the sudoriparous and lymphatic glandular systems; the vital nature of their functions in preparing the conditions necessary to venous absorption, and the effect of their derangement in the production of the various diseases ascribed to malaria / by Robert Willis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    complete liarmony with the views now taken of their vital function. In conformity with the principle of organs being found near to the places where their office is requii'ed, the office of the lymphatics must be general, inasmuch as the system is general. Mr Lane has, however, called particular attention to the fact that the lymphatics are by no means minutely ramified, like arteries, veins, and nerves, to every constituent particle of the body. They are never seen, save as vessels of a certain magnitude, that may be followed from the glands of the arm-pit and groin downwards, with the naked eye, by means of the knife and forceps to the very extremi- ties of the fingers and toes. They run under the skin and in the intermuscular spaces, in lines more or less parallel to one another, and for long distances without receiving any lateral branches, although they frequently inosculate. Instead of growing larger continually, and from twigs and branches becoming trunks, in their upward course, like veins, the principal lymphatic channels on the dorsum of the foot, and on the back and palm of the hand, are actually seen dividing into great numbers of but slighfl}’’ smaller canals, which then proceed upwards, and only come together again as the}’^ ap- proach clusters of lymphatic glands, in which alone are they seen distributed like the blood-vessels into branches and twigs successively smaller and smaller, and then from twigs to branches successively larger and larger, till they emerge and resume thcii’ former fascicular distribution. The object here is evidently to dljTttsc, not to concentrate the influence of these vessels. The lymphatics of the extremities, in a word, have ever}'where the same character, and bear the strongest pos- sible resemblance in their disposition to the tubular drains of modern agriculture; and they have, in fact, something of the same duty as these to perform. It is only on the serous membranes surrounding the viscera that the lymphatics have rather more of the appearance of veins in their mode of dis- tribution : still, even here, they are not in general seen rami- fying extensively, and dividing into branches and twigs sue-