48 LETTERS TO BROTHER JOHN. 



minuteness and general appearance ; or rather, what 

 would be their general appearance, if they could 

 be seen. 



The absorbents, therefore, arise from every 

 point of the body. Their course is not straight, 

 but waving and devious; and, as they proceed 

 towards their termination, they are perpetually 

 inosculating, that is, uniting, and again separating. 

 In this manner they form a wonderful web or net- 

 work, whose meshes are spread over and through- 

 out the entire body. They all eventually termi- 

 nate and empty their contents into the veins at the 

 bottom of the neck. The office of the lymphatic 

 absorbents is, to take up molecule after molecule of 

 the solid body, convert it into the fluid called 

 lymph, and carry it into the blood. The office of 

 the chylous absorbents is, to suck up from the in- 

 testines the nutritious chyle, and convey that also 

 into the blood. These two sets of vessels, there- 

 fore, may be compared, not inaptly, to two parties 

 of labourers; the one party being occupied in 

 pulling down the old building, and carrying away 

 the rubbish ; while the other is equally busy in 

 bringing new materials, wherewith to rebuild it as 

 fast as it is pulled down. 



You have probably often heard the word 



