Solitary Gland Research Articles

Notice respecting the Occurrence of Lymph-Corpuscles in the commencements of the Lymphatic Vessels

ABSTRACT The recent researches of Virchow on the one hand, and of Brücke, Donders, and myself on the other., have shown that the lymphatic glands are the principal seat of origin of the cellæform elements of the chyle. The further question arises, as to whether lymph-cells are formed in other situations besides those organs, and particularly, whether the independent formation of such cells, in the commencement of the-lacteals, which has recently been almost universally assumed, be really deducible from well-ascertained facts. This question is of the greater interest, that the formation of lymph-cells in the commencement of lymphatics has hitherto been regarded as one of the most certain instances of the formation of cells around isolated nuclei contained in a fluid, whilst the more recent results of histological inquiries have tended more and more to limit the occurrence of a free cell-formation independent of pre-existing cells. Consideration of the foregoing facts, would certainly, at first sight, appear to render the question now in discussion superfluous, inasmuch as it has long been proved that the lacteal s of the small intestine, even at their commencement between the intestine and the mesenteric glands, contain lymph-corpuscles ; but here the possibility arises, that the cells may be derived from the Peyerian and solitary follicles, whose connexion with the lacteals is asserted by Brücke, and which on this account have been regarded as a kind of lymphatic glands. In this state of things, it is above all necessary to investigate the conditions under which, and the situations in which, the lymphatics contain cellæform elements previously to their reaching the lymphatic glands, and where not; an investigation which, when carried out sufficiently, is more difficult than it appears at first sight. Although I have had neither opportunity nor leisure of instituting detailed researches on this subject, still I am in a condition to communicate some facts, which may serve as an introduction to further inquiries.