Medical commentaries. Part I. Containing a plain and direct answer to Professor Monro jun. Interspersed with remarks on the structure, functions and diseases of several parts of the human body / By William Hunter, M. D.

  • Hunter, William, 1718-1783.
Date:
1777
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical commentaries. Part I. Containing a plain and direct answer to Professor Monro jun. Interspersed with remarks on the structure, functions and diseases of several parts of the human body / By William Hunter, M. D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    “ lymphatics, though too fmall to be demonhrated otherwife than by Dr. Nicolls’ experiment of inflating them with air, conveyed by a blow-pipe.” He tells me the following was an additional note, taken at a fubfe- quent ledure, to the belT; of his recolledion and belief in the year fol¬ lowing, viz. 1752. “ As the veins called Barthollne’s lymphatics are too minute to be “ traced to their origin, anatomifts are not agreed from whence they “ arlfe. The generality take them to be continuations of fmall arteries; “ and their proofs are by no means trivial, if it be true, (as it is aflerted), “ that by making a ligature upon the vein proceeding from any gland, “ you will fee the lymphatic veflels of that gland greatly diftended, as of “ the kidney for example. And they tell us too, that by driving air into “ an artery in the dead fubjed, you inflate thefe veins; and thus demon- “ ftrate the truth of this dodrine Notwithflanding thefe fpecious ar- “ guments, however, Mr. Hunter is clearly of opinion, that thefe veins “ are rather the abforbents arlfing from all the different cavities of the “ body, as the vejica urinaria^ fellis, veficulc^ feminalesy 6cc. &c.-A *' ftrong prefumptive argument at leafl In fupport of this notion, Is the “ clofe analogy they in many circumflances bear to the ladeals; for thefe “ rife like the lymphatics, have little elfe than the kneading motion in “ refpiration to promote the progrefs of the chyle, and are furnifhed with valves at due diflances, that the chyle may be always fure of paffing “ on to the reccptaciilum c/iyli, and du^us thoracicus.-The fame place “ of termination have all the lymphatics ; in like manner are thefe pro- “ vided with innumerable little valves; their coats are thin and fine as “ the ladeals 3 they anaflomofe frequently like them ; and in fhort, feem in do him the plcafure of tranfcribing one paragraph (from page 53,) which in every line fhows an eafe in writing, and a Hrmnefs of mind, almofl beyond conception. “ I have, however, “ clearly proved” fays the profefl'or, “ that Dr. Hunter never had fhewn any preparations, “ nor made c.xperimer.ts on the lymphatics, from which any conclufion relating to their “ origin could poflibly be drawn : and that, fo far from pretending to explain or refute the “ experiments of Nuci, Coivper, Lifle’'y &c. in proof of lymphatic arteries, he never fo “ much as mentioned them. Confequently Dr. Hunter’s pretenfions to even the fmalleft “ fliare of what he is pleafed to call,” (which by the bye I never did) “ the important difeo- “ very, that the valvular lymphatic veffeii are a fyflem of ahforbent veins, are evidently founded “ on a declaration or conclufion contradicted by premifes. And this conclufion, fo far from meriting praife, can only be faid not to deferve cenfure, on the fiippofition, that he was “ ignorant of what had been done on the fubjed.”