204 OF ABSORPTION AND SANGUIFICATION. 



contained none, are all favorable to the latter opinion. The experiments of 

 Auspitz 1 show that the absorption of solid bodies (rice starch) and mercury 

 can be effected by rubbing them strongly into the skin, and that it is mate- 

 rially facilitated by the addition of any oily substance. When absorption 

 does take place, we should expect that the absorbed substances would be 

 more readily discoverable in the absorbents than in the veins ; for their im- 

 bibition takes place entirely according to the physical laws already men- 

 tioned, in conformity with which they pass most readily into the vessels 

 which present the thinnest walls and the largest surface. 2 



148. Our inferences with regard to the ordinary functions of the Lym- 

 phatic system, however, must be rather drawn from the nature of the fluid 

 which it contains, and from the uses subsequently made of it, than from 

 such experiments as the preceding. We shall presently see that there is a 

 close correspondence in composition between the Chyle of the Lacteals and 

 the Lymph of the Lymphatics ; the chief difference being the presence of 

 a considerable quantity of fatty matter in the former, and of a larger pro- 

 portion of the assimilable substances (albumen and fibrin) which are equally 

 characteristic of both ( 152, 153). This evident conformity in the nature 

 of the fluid which these two sets of vessels transmit, joined to the fact that 

 the fluid Lymph, like the Chyle, is conveyed into the general current of the 

 circulation, just before the blood is again transmitted to the system at large, 

 almost inevitably leads to the inference that the lymph is, like the chyle, a 

 nutritious fluid, and is not of an excremeutitious character, as maintained 

 by Hunter and his followers. On the other hand, the close resemblance 

 between the contents of the Lymphatics and diluted Liquor Sauguinis seems 

 to indicate that the former are chiefly derived from the fluid portion of the 

 blood, which has transuded through the walls of the capillary vessels, and 

 has permeated the tissues, giving up to them the materials required for their 

 nutrition. And we shall presently see reason to believe that this transuda- 

 tion answers the additional purpose of subjecting the crude materials, which 

 may have been taken up direct into the bloodvessels, to an elaborating or 

 preparatory agency, such as it seems to be the especial object of the Lacteal 

 system to exert upon the nutritive substances which it serves to introduce 

 into the circulation. But it seems not impossible that there may be another 

 source for the contents of the Lymphatics. We have already had to allude, 

 on several occasions, to the disintegration which is continually taking place 

 within the living body ; whether as a result of the limited duration of the 

 life of its component parts, or as a consequence of the decomposing action 

 of Oxygen. Now the death of the tissues by no means involves their imme- 

 diate and complete destruction ; and there seems no more reason why an 

 animal should not derive support from its own dead parts than from the 

 dead body of another individual. Whilst, therefore, the matter which has 

 undergone too complete a disintegration to be again employed as nutrient 

 material, is carried off by the excreting processes, that portion which is ca- 

 pable of being again assimilated, may be taken up by the Lymphatic system. 

 If this be the case, we may say with Dr. Prout, that " a sort of digestion is 

 carried on in all parts of the body."- It may be stated, then, as a general 

 proposition, that the function of the Absorbent System is to take up, and to 

 convey back into the circulating apparatus in a state of higher elaboration, 



1 Op. cit., vol. ii., p. 320. 



2 For much interesting information respecting the increased energy, rapidity, and 

 certainty of action of various poisons introduced directly into the circulation by the 

 hypodermic mode of injection, as compared with the effects of the same substances 

 when administered by the stomach, see the Report of a Committee of the Medico- 

 Chir. Soc. in vol. v of the Transactions of that Society. 



