PHYSIOLOGY OF ORGANIC LIFE. 137 



nier carry materiaTs to the blood, to supply the 

 waste which it suffers the latter receive from 

 the system the parts which are wasted, or 

 which have accomplished the purpose for 

 which they were enlarged. In no organ is this 

 office more striking, than in the uterus. Before 

 gestation, the lymphatics of that organ are re- 

 markably small and thready ; after parturition, 

 they immediately increase in size, and have 

 often been seen as large as the quill of a 

 goose : it is through their agency that the dif- 

 ferent parts of the system, that are either super^ 

 fluons, or diseased, are removed ; diminishing 

 the fabric of the whole by the parts which they 

 absorb, and often destroying the form itself. 

 Notwithstanding these avowed purposes for 

 which the lymphatics are designed, the opinion 

 which was first broached by Mr. HUNTER, 

 soon after they were discovered, that they were 

 the modellers of our frame, continues to be pre- 

 served. Instead of being modellers, they form the 

 agents only,* 1 by which the dilapidation of the sys- 

 tem is accomplished. If the power of these ves- 



* The pig which had remained under the ruins of the cliff 

 which fell in at Dover, for the period of five months, was re- 

 duced in weight, by the activity of these vessels, for the most 

 part, from eight score, to thirty-six pounds ; that is, he had 

 lost in weight 124 pounds. 



