On the structure of the intestinal villi in man and certain of the mammalia, with some observations on digestion, and the absorption of chyle / by John Goodsir.

Date:
[1845]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the structure of the intestinal villi in man and certain of the mammalia, with some observations on digestion, and the absorption of chyle / by John Goodsir. 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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    viewed by transmitted light, were of a light brown colour; but when examined as opaque objects, against a dark ground, they stood out of a dead white appearance, contrasting strongly with the semi-transparency of the surrounding tissue. Re- peated examinations of these preparations satisfied me that Dr William Hunter and Mr Cruikshank were quite cor- rect in describing and figuring radiating lacteals within the villi, but that they were led into error in describing those vessels as opening on Jhe free surface of the gut, partly by imperfect instruments and methods of observation, partly by the general prejudice of the period in favour of absorbent orifices. I also satisfied myself of what appeared highly pro- bable from the commencement of the observations, that the villi, when turgid with chyle, were destitute of their ordinary epithelial covering. This circumstance I could not avoid con- necting with the fact of the stomach throwing off its epitlielia during the process of digestion. I determined, therefore, to in- vestigate the process of absorption of chyle in fresh subjects, as the facts exhibited in Mr Cruikshank’s preparations indi- cated the probable existence of complicated processes going on in villi during digestion. The analogy of the vesicular bulbous extremity of the villus, to the spongiole of the vege- table, forced itself upon me; and the existence of milky chyle, within closed cells, led me to anticipate an explanation of some of the phenomena of digestion. A dog was fed with oatmeal, milk, and butter. Three hours afterwards he was killed, and a cord thrown round the root of the mesentery. The lacteals became more turgid, and the gut, when opened, was found to be full of milky chyme, with an admixture of thin brownish fluid of a bilious appearance. The milky matter was situated principally towards the mucous membrane; the brown fluid occupied the cavity of the gut. The white matter was found to consist of a transparent fluid, with a few oil globules, and numerous epithelia. Some of the epithelia I recognised as those which cover the villi. They were pointed at their attached extremities, flat at the other. (Fig. 1, PI. I.) Many of them were single, others were united in bundles, adhering principally by their flat or free extremities, as if a fine membrane passed over and connected