128 On the Organs of ALsorption, 



ferous veins, in common with the lymphatic vessels, pos- 

 sessed an absorbing power. 



It is supported by different circumstances of structure, 

 and by some physioloirical and pathological facts. A series 

 of interesting experiments, undertaken and executed a few 

 years since, at the veterinary school of Alfort, has also 

 strengthened the probability of such absorbent property 

 of the veins, but without producing entire conviction. It 

 is well understood, that an opinion established upon the 

 physical structure of the organs, deduced from a sufficient 

 and conclusive number of experiments, and supported by 

 the names of Boerhaave, Haller, and Ruysch, ought not 

 to be easily abandoned. Nor was less required than the 

 anatomical discoveries of the last centurv, the correct ex- 

 periments of Hunter and his brother, those of Cruikshank, 

 Mascagni,Desgenettes, and others, toeslablish the belief that 

 the lymphatic vessels only possess the absorbent faculty. 



I will further cite, in support of the general opinion, 

 some very curious experiments lately made by M. Dupuy- 

 tren. This physiologist, who has kindly permitted me to 

 report the principal results of his labours, tied the thoracic 

 duct in several horses ; some of them died in five or six 

 days, others preserved every appearance of health. We 

 know already, by an experiment of Duverny, by some ob- 

 servations on the thoracic duct when obstructed, and above 

 all by the experiments of Landrin, that the thoracic duct 

 may cease to convey the chyle into the subclavian vein, 

 without being followed by the death of the animal : it is 

 true, we also know, that some animals died in consequence 

 of a ligature round the duct ; but we are entirely ignorant 

 of the cause of this diversity in the results. M. Dupuy- 

 tren, by his experiments, has found one very satisfactory. 

 In the animals that died in five or six days from the liga- 

 ture round the thoracic duct, he always found it impossi- 

 ble to pass any injection from the inferior part of the duct 

 into the subcla^ian vein; consequently, it is very probable 

 that the chyle ceased to be conveyed into the venous sy- 

 stem immediately after the application of the ligature. On 

 the contrary, in all the animals who have survived the ap- 

 plication of the ligature, it has always been easy to make 

 everv kind of liquid pass from the inferior part of the duct 

 to tlfC subclavian veins, by means of the very numerous 

 conimunications between these two points by the lymphatic 

 vessels, placed alike in the posterior as in the anterior me- 

 diastinum. 



I have 



