50 LETTERS TO BROTHER JOHN. 



Now, as these glands are merely a congeries of 

 astonishingly minute absorbent vessels, it is clear 

 that the lymph and the chyle, which these vessels 

 convey, must traverse these glands before they can 

 enter the blood. The chyle and lymph are, in 

 fact, strained through several of these curious little 

 sieves ; and this straining produces some necessary 

 alteration in their nature ; but of what particular 

 kind, it is not known. I need not tell you, after 

 what I have already said of the distribution of 

 arteries and veins, that these latter vessels every- 

 where accompany, and interweave themselves with, 

 the absorbent vessels and glands. 



Now that you understand the nature of the diffe- 

 rent offices or functions performed by the lymphatic 

 and chylous absorbents, you will easily comprehend 

 what is called the modus vivendi ; that is, the man- 

 ner how we live ; viz. in a state of perpetual decay 

 and regeneration a continual pulling down and 

 building up again. There is not a square inch iu 

 your whole body which is the same as it was ten 

 years ago. That which was you, ten years since, is 

 now not you, but something else ; it has been resol- 

 ved into its original elements, has undergone new 

 combinations, and is at this moment, perhaps, nou- 

 rishing in the shape of some goodly water-dock or 



