The Lacteals, so called from the milky appearance of the liquor they are destined to carry, arise, by numberless open mouths, from the inner surface of the intestines. Each lacteal takes its origin upon one of the villi, by numerous short radiated branches, and each branch is furnished with an orifice for imbibing the chyle. The radiated branches are collected in fasciculi, which are enclosed in processes of the inner coat of the intestines. These fasciculi are of a roundish form, and have been called ampullulce of Leiberkuhn, from the author considering: them as little bottles receiving the chyle. From the villi, the lacteals run a considerable way under the muscular coat of the intestines, and then pass obliquely through it, uniting in their course into larger branches. Upon the surface of the intestines an external set appears; it runs between the peritoneal and muscular coats, and commonly proceeds some way in the directiou of the intestine, and with few ramifications. The superficial and deep-seated lacteals communicate freely in the substance of the intestines: those of the jejunum are larger and more numerous than those of the ilium, the principal part of the chyle being contained in the former.

The absorbents of the great, are proportionally of an inferior size to those of the small, intestines, and have seldom, though sometimes, been observed to be filled with chyle. In their course they pass through a great number of lacteal or mcsen Uric glands, which, like the lacteals themselves, are largest and most numerous in that part of the mesentery which belongs to the jejunum.