46 LETTERS TO BROTHER JOHN. 



Now this chyle has somewhat the appearance, 

 and also some of the properties, of milk ; and the 

 Latin word for milk is lac and, therefore, those 

 particular absorbents which arise from the internal 

 surface of the intestines, and which have to perform 

 the additional duty of absorbing, that is, sucking 

 up, this lac, are, on that account, called lacteals. 

 As I hare before observed, it is the office of the 

 other absorbents (and indeed of the lacteals too, 

 when they have no lac, that is, chyle, to suck up) 

 to absorb the solid body ; and as fast as they ab- 

 sorb it, they convert it into a fluid. This fluid has 

 something the appearance of water; and one of the 

 Latin words for water is lympha and, therefore, 

 this fluid has received the name of lymph ; and on 

 that account, those particular absorbents, which 

 never contain any thing but this lymph, are called 

 lymphatics, in order to distinguish them from the 

 lacteals, which do sometimes carry something else 

 than lymph namely, chyle. For the sake of per- 

 spicuity, I shall call those absorbents which take 

 up the chyle, chylous absorbents. 



If you place a looking-glass before you, and with 

 the finger and thumb of your right hand take hold 

 of the lashes of your lower eyelid, and gently draw 

 it down so as to expose its edge to your view, you 



