ON ABSORPTION. 



Read February 2ndf 1857. 

 By C. SPENCE BATE, Esq., F.L.S. 



Among the many subjects of interest to the members 

 of this Society, there is none from which would 

 probably result greater practical utility than that 

 of the elucidation of the process of Absorption, 

 the economy by which nature gets rid of a worn- 

 out organism, in order that its place may be occu- 

 pied by another better adapted to the requirements 

 of the individual. 



It is unnecessary here to enter into the numerous 

 hypotheses of the earlier physiologists, except so 

 far as they may assist to a conclusion of the sub- 

 ject at the present stage. 



One of the first ideas was, that the new tooth 

 pressed against the old one, and produced disin- 

 tegration of its structure. But this has been so 

 long given up by all, that it is not just to refute it 

 as an accepted theory, and it would not have been 

 alluded to in this paper, except that the discovery 

 of a very interesting fossil beautifully demonstrates 

 the error (Plate I). It moreover shows, that not 



