516 OF ABSORPTION AND SANGUIFICATION. 



in the Lacteals,the selecting power is such, that these vessels are not disposed 

 to convey into the system any substances but such as are destined for this 

 purpose ; and that extraneous matters are absorbed in preference by the Me- 

 senteric Blood-vessels. The case is different, however, with regard to the 

 Lymphatics ; for there is reason to believe, that they are more disposed than 

 the veins to the absorption of other soluble matters ; especially when these 

 are brought into relation with the skin, through which the lymphatic vessels 

 are very profusely distributed. 



a. Since the time of Hunter, who first brought prominently forward the doctrine alluded 

 to, it has been commonly supposed that the function of the Lymphatics is to remove, by in- 

 terstitial absorption, the effete matter, which is destined to be carried out of the system ; and 

 any undue activity in this process (such as exists in ulceration), or any deficiency in its 

 energy (such as gives rise to dropsical effusions, and other collections of the same kind), 

 have been attributed to excess or diminution in the normal operation of the Absorbent Sys- 

 tem. From what has been stated, however, it appears that the special function of the 

 Lymphatics, like that of the Lacteals, is nutritive absorption;* and that the reception of any 

 other substances into their interior, must be looked upon as resulting simply from the per- 

 meability of their walls. This statement applies to the not unfrequent occurrence of the 

 absorption of bile, and other fluids, from the walls of the cavities in which they were col- 

 lected: with regard to the absorption of pus, however, which has been occasionally noticed 

 to take place, both from internal collections, and from open ulcers, it may be remarked, that 

 the lymphatic vessels were not improbably laid open by ulceration ; since in no other way 

 can be understood the entrance of globules so large as those of pus, into their interior. 



b. If this view of the function of the Lymphatics be correct, it follows that we must at- 

 tribute to the Blood-vessels the absorption of the truly effete particles ; and in this there 

 would seem no improbability. We know that VenousJ^lood contains the elements of two 

 important excretions, that of the lungs and that of the bile, in a far higher amount than does 

 arterial blood ; and we shall hereafter see, that there is a certain portion of the fluid, which 

 consists of " ill defined animal principles" that seem ready to be thus thrown off. 



c. It may be further remarked, that the reciprocal part which Hunter imagined the Ar- 



* The Author, at the time of the publication of the First Edition of this work, believed 

 this view to be altogether novel ; he has since learned, however, that a similar doctrine had 

 been put forward by Dr. Moultrie, of South Carolina, in the American Journal of the Medi- 

 cal Sciences, for the year 1S27. 



[In the American Journal of the Medical Sciences, for 1827, Dr. James Moultrie pub- 

 lished an essay on the l; Uses of the Lymph," in which, amongst other things attempted to 

 be sustained, will be found the following views. 



1. The lacteals and lymphatics do not constitute, as they are supposed to do, the absorbent 

 system of the animal economy ; they do not, as the absorbent theory supposes, remove from 

 the organs the "cast oft" molecules" of which they are composed, or carry out of the body 

 the " effete" particles disintegrated by the act of the assimilative function. The one is en- 

 gaged in the preparation and introduction of chyle, and chyle only into the blood ; the other 

 in elaborating an organizable product a recremcntitious secretion destined to unite with it 

 for objects of a common and nutritious nature. 2. The primary object of the lymph, and 

 that for which it is made to commingle with the chyle in the thoracic duct, is the vitalization 

 of the latter fluid. 3. The truly "effete" matter of the body is the carbonaceous element 

 of the venous blood, to which mny be added the urea or azotic element of the urine. Thau 

 these, we know of nothing to which that term can be applied. 4. The venous and not tin; 

 lacteal or lymphatic system, therefore, is the "absorbent system," in any disintegratory or 

 effete sense of the phrase. 5. Nature, in effecting the elimination of excrementitious mat- 

 ter from the constituency of the solid or fluid parts, appears to aim at restoring to the physi- 

 cal universe, the matter temporarily borrowed for subsistence, in a state of elementary sim- 

 plicity, or an approximation thereto; that is, the carbon as carbon, the azote as a/otc, and 

 hydrogen and oxygen as hydrogen nnd oxygen. The lungs she uses as one medium of es- 

 cape ; the ki<lncy> as ;i second; and the skin ;is a third, &e. Hence, the ear! ionic acid gas 

 of respiration; the urea of the kidneys, and the aqueous exhalations of the skin, pulmonary 

 transpiration and urine. 



These doctrines have been regularly taught by Dr. M.. in his course of lectures on physi- 

 ology, delivered in the Medical College of the State of South Carolina, since the establish- 

 ment of the College in 1833. They have also been recently enforced in a brochure published 

 by Dr. M., in which he asserts and vindicates his claim to their paternity. On the Organic 

 Functions of Animals. By JAMKS MOULTIUE, M.D., etc., Charleston, S. C. 1844. M. C.] 



