ABSORPTION. 251 



finest ramifications terminate blindly in minute projections of the 

 inner surface of the intestine, and seem to be specially designed 

 for the purpose of absorption : besides these innumerable media 

 for absorbing the soluble substances from the chyme, we likewise 

 find in the intestinal tube certain glandular or capsular organs, 

 which according to recent views are regarded as being connected 

 with absorption rather than with secretion. 



At the first glance it might appear inappropriate to begin our 

 consideration of the digestive process with its actual termination, 

 that is to say, with absorption ; but independently of the fact that 

 we have already, in the second volume, entered somewhat fully 

 upon many subjects having reference to digestion, in our remarks 

 upon the digestive juices, we are the more resolved to commence 

 here with the final result, inasmuch as we can thus better take 

 a general review of the whole process. If by the term digestion 

 we understand that process by virtue of which nutriment is trans- 

 mitted, in accordance with chemical and physical laws, into the 

 circulating system for the renovation of those portions of the 

 organs which have become effete, and if we further establish the 

 fact, that by digestion the food is reduced to a soluble state, or 

 generally speaking, to such a condition that it is capable of being 

 absorbed into the mass of the juices of the animal body, we take 

 the most natural starting-point, not merely for forming an opinion 

 regarding the proximate object of digestion, but likewise for attain- 

 ing a deeper insight into the different actions and reactions between 

 the food and the digestive juices. For if we only establish the 

 proposition, that the intestinal absorbents possess no specific in- 

 dwelling property totally different from other physical forces, and 

 that they no more enjoy a distinct elective power than the radicles 

 of plants, it obviously follows that in the various arrangements 

 which occur in the intestinal canal in connexion with the process 

 of absorption, the difference in the agents of absorption must cor- 

 respond with the different physical and chemical characters of the 

 substance to be absorbed ; and this leads us to the idea, that food 

 (whose nutrient power, moreover, has nothing to do with the ques- 

 tion of digestion) stands in as close a relation to the organs of 

 absorption as to the solvent and digestive juices. The group of 

 molecules entering into the composition of a substance, whether we 

 consider the point chemically or physically, must regulate its 

 general behaviour in relation to the agents concerned in digestion 

 as well as in absorption ; and hence the agents concerned in diges- 

 tion, that is to say, the juices effused into the intestinal canal and 



