ABSORPTION BY BLOOD-YESSELS. 417 



conclusive experiments of Magendie, in 1809, tnat positive 

 proof was given of the absorbing power of the blood-vessels. 

 These experiments settled the question of vascular absorp- 

 tion, though they led some to take too exclusive a view of 

 the importance of the venous radicles in this function, and 

 to deny that absorption took place to any considerable ex- 

 tent through the lymphatic and lacteal system. 



If it were consistent with the plan of this work to enter 

 into a purely historical discussion of the theories which have 

 been advanced from time to time concerning the mechanism 

 of absorption, it might be shown that comparatively modern 

 researches have led us back to the views entertained by the 

 ancients, before the discovery of the lymphatic system of 

 vessels ; but we shall confine ourselves to a history of those 

 facts connected with absorption, which have been experimen- 

 tally demonstrated. In 1808, in a paper on the " Structure 

 and Uses of the Spleen," read before the Royal Society of 

 London, Everard Home showed that various matters in- 

 jected into the stomach were carried to the spleen without 

 passing into the thoracic duct. The inference to be drawn 

 from this paper, which is very brief, is that he supposed that 

 these substances were carried to the spleen by absorbents, 

 and were there mixed with the blood. In these experiments 

 Home was assisted by Brodie. 1 In 1811, as the result of 

 further experiments on this subject, Home abandoned the 

 idea that the -principles absorbed were mixed with the blood 

 in the spleen, as he found that matters injected into the 

 stomach appeared in the blood in a dog from which the 

 spleen had been removed four days before. 2 The first 



to were made in 1758 and 1759. (J. HUNTER, Observations on Certain Parts of 

 the Animal (Economy, Philadelphia, 1840, p. 303.) 



1 HOME, On the Structure and Uses of the Spleen. Philosophical Transac- 

 tions, London, 1808, p. 45 et seq. 



2 HOME, Experiments to prove that Fluids pass directly from the Stomach to 

 the Circulation of the Blood, and from thence into the Cells of the Spleen, the G-all- 

 Bladder and Urinary Bladder without going through the Thoracic Duct. Philo- 

 sophical Transactions, London, 1811, p. 163 et seq. 



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