A lecture on the functions of the lymphatic system / [Robert James Graves].

  • Graves, Robert James, 1796-1853
Date:
1828
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A lecture on the functions of the lymphatic system / [Robert James Graves]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    comes red, from the appearance of minute vessels car¬ rying red blood. These vessels appear often so sud¬ denly, that we are forced to admit their previous ex¬ istence in the part; and the existence of vessels being thus proved, it follows that the fluid circulating in them must have been white, for otherwise they would have been visible. This simple experiment on the living animal enables us to prove the existence of mi¬ nute vessels in white parts, conveying in health a white fluid, and directly continuous with the arteries, as is shown by the immediate entrance of arterial blood into these vessels, when the part is stimulated.* 2d. We find that the pseudomembranes so often formed between the pleura pulmonalis and pleura cos- talis, are capable of becoming vascular, red, and in¬ flamed, and are sometimes found covered with an exu¬ dation of coagulable lymph. It is quite evident that in such membranes, quite unconnected as they are with any red part, the vascu¬ larity observed during inflammation must belong to themselves. When the inflammation subsides, the vessels into which red blood had found its way, again convey a white fluid, and consequently become invi¬ sible. 3d. Where a serous membrane covers another white structure, in the manner that the synovial mem¬ branes are attached to the cartilages and capsular li¬ gaments of joints; when we find, as is often the case, that the internal surface of the joint becomes highly * See experiments by Hunter, in his Treatise on Inflammation. Also Thompson on Inflammation,