108 PHYSIOLOGY OF THE CIRCULATION. 



1. The indirect evidence constituted by the facts 

 and arguments adduced in the first part of this 

 memoir, in order to show that an effusion of certain 

 portions of the blood is constantly occurring through 

 the coats of the small arteries and contiguous portion 

 of the capillaries; and if this conclusion be a correct 

 one, it is evident that no active absorption can be pro- 

 ceeding in the same. 



2. I have attempted to show, by imitative experi- 

 ments, that every circumstance connected with the 

 arrangement, structure, and relations of the veins, 

 is calculated to favour the absorbing power of the 

 streams of blood by which they are traversed. Thus 

 I found that, with a membranous tube and an 

 ascending stream, absorption could only be obtained 

 by copying, as closely as possible, every peculiarity 

 observed in the veins of animals ; and while engaged 

 in devising an apparatus which should rudely repre- 

 sent some of the contrivances employed by nature in 

 her most elaborate works, I could not resist the 

 conviction that, if it were possible for man to con- 

 struct an arborescent system of minute membranous 

 tubes, similar to the veins of animals, the streams 

 traversing which should possess the same physical 

 properties, follow the same converging course, and 

 be in every respect subjected to the same physical 

 conditions as the blood contained within the veins, 

 then the same physical result, viz. the rapid absorp- 

 tion of any external fluid, would most undoubtedly 

 be obtained. 



3. Fodera, who watched the process of absorption 



