Mr. Mayo on Human Physiology, 93 



per organs of absorption, not the veins; and his opinion was 

 confirmed by experiments made by Mr. John Hunter, which 

 went to show, that the lacteals would absorb other sub- 

 stances besides tlie chyle, from the cavity of the intestines. 



But the recent experiments of MM. Flandrin, Ma- 

 jendie, Segalas, and Fodere, have sufficiently proved that 

 there was some error in the experiments of Hunter ; that 

 the lacteals absorb chyle alone ; and that every other 

 substance, which makes its way from the cavity of the in- 

 testines, or from a wound, into the system, directly enters 

 tlie blood-vessels 



In repeating the Hunterian experiment, Mr. Mayo dis- 

 covered the fallacy which probably misled its distinguished 

 author. It appears that the lacteals, when empty, and seen 

 against an obscure medium, are of a blue colour. If a por- 

 tion of mesentery be examined, when the lacteals are full of 

 chyle, and they happen then to empty themselves, what 

 were before white lines, on expelling their contents, become 

 blue. But it happened that the fluid which Mr. Hunter 

 employed in almost all his experiments was a solution of 

 starch and indigo : he thought he saw the blue fluid ab- 

 sorbed ; when probably he only saw the vessel emptied of 

 its usual white contents. 



M. Majendie supposes that his experiments prove not 

 only that the lacteals are employed exclusively in ab- 

 sorbing chyle, but that in every other instance, where ab- 

 sorption takes place, the veins alone are concerned. 



A little reflection, however, as Mr. Mayo makes it ap- 

 pear, is sufficient to show, that no such sweeping inference 

 can be drawn from the data which we possess ; and that, on 

 the other hand, we have good reason to suppose that the 

 blood-vessels are in no instance absorbents, properly so 

 called ; the conclusiveness of M. Majendie's experiments 

 being set aside, by supposing the introduction of poisons 

 into the blood-vessels to be the simple result of inert transu- 

 dation, or to be of the same nature with the diftusion of the 

 bile after death, through the textures adjacent to the gall- 

 bladder. 



Mr. Mayo proceeds further to argue in favour of the 

 reasonableness of Dr. Hunter's supposition, that the lym- 

 phatic vessels are the agents employed upon intersitial ab- 

 sorption. 



When the flesh for a small extent has imbibed an acrid 

 virus, the poison of lues for instance, an ulcer takes place, 

 or, in other words, the poisoned part is absorbed ; — in tliis 



