200 ABSORPTION. 



fat meat, and drawing blood, seven or eight hours afterward, from the 

 carotid artery or the jugular vein. 



This state of things continues for a varying length of time, according 

 to the amount of oleaginous matters contained in the food. When 

 digestion is terminated, and the fat ceases to be introduced in unusual 

 quantity into the circulation, its transformation and decomposition con- 

 tinuing to take place in the blood, it disappears gradually from the 

 veins, arteries, and capillaries of the general system ; and, finally, when 

 the whole of it has been disposed of by the nutritive process, the serum 

 again becomes transparent, and the blood returns to its ordinary condi- 

 tion. 



In this manner the nutritive elements of the food, prepared for ab- 

 sorption by the digestive process, are taken up into the circulation under 

 the different forms of albuminose, sugar, and chyle, and accumulate as 

 such, at. certain times, in the blood. But these conditions are tempo- 

 rary and transitional. The nutritive materials soon pass by transfor- 

 mation into other forms, and become assimilated to the pre-existing 

 elements of the circulating fluid. In this way they accomplish finally 

 the object of digestion, and replenish the blood by a supply of new 

 materials from without. 



