&ect. XXIII. 3- SYSTEM, 209 



III. Another feries of glandular veiTsls is called the abforbent 

 fyfte'm ; thefe open their mouths into all the cavities, and upon 

 ali tho;e furfaces of the body, where the excretory apertures of 

 the other glands pour out their fluids... The mouths of the ab- 

 forbent fyilem drink up a part or the whole of thefe fluids, and 

 carry them forwards, -by their living' power to their refpeclive 

 glands, which are called conglobate glands. • .There thefe fluids 

 undergo fome change, before they pafs on into the circulanon ; 

 but if they are very acrid, the conglobate gland fwells, and fome- 

 times fuppurates, as in inoculation of the fmall-pox, in the plague, 

 and in venereal abforptions ; at other times the fluid may per- 

 haps continue there, till it undergoes fome chemical change, that 

 renders it lefs noxious ; or, what is more likely, till it is regurgi- 

 tated by the retrograde motion of the gland in fpontaneous iVeats 

 or diarrhoeas^ as difagreeing food is vomited from the ftomach. 

 , The powers. of abibrpiion are (hewn in No. I. of this Section, 

 both thofe of the blood and of the chyle of animals, and of the 

 fap-juice of vegetables, to be much greater than- has commonly 

 been conceived. To, which may be added, that the moving 

 force of the chyle in the receptaculum chyli and. thoracic duel' 

 muft be equal to the moving force of the blood in the fubclavian 

 vein, as otherwife the chyle could not enter into that vein, un- 

 lefs it be fuppofed to poflefs.a fyflole and diaftole near the heart ; 

 which alfo affords an argument to (hew., that the progress of the 

 blood in the veins, and that of the chyle in the abforbent fy (rem, 

 originates from a fimiJar caufe, that of their abforptive powers. 

 , IV. As all the fluids, that pafs through thefe glands, and cal 

 ; iry veffels, undergo a chemical change, acquiring new com- 

 binations, the matter of heat is at the fame time given out ; this 

 is apparent, fince whatever increafes infenfible penpiration, in- 

 creaies the heat of the fkin ; and when the action of thefe ve-ffeis 

 k much increafed but for a moment, as in blaming, 3 vivid heat 

 on, the fkin is the immediate confequence. So when great bil- 

 ious fecretions, or thofe of any other gland, are produced, heat 

 is generated in the part in proportion to the quantity of the fe- 

 cretion. 



. The heat produced on the fkin by blaming may -be thought 

 by fome too fudden to be pronounced a chemical effecl:* as the 

 fermentations or new combinations taking place in a fluid is in 

 general a flower procefs. Yet are there many chemical mixtures 

 in which heat is given out as initantaneoufly ; as in folutions of 

 metals in acids, or in mixtures of elfential oils and acids, as of 

 oil of cloves and acid of nitre. So the bruifed parts of an un- 

 ripe apple become aim oil mttantaneouily fweet •, and if the chem- 

 ico-animil procefs of digeition be flopped for but a moment, a* 

 Vol. I, D d bv 



