THE LYMPHATIC SYSTEM 83 



red corpuscles are arrested in large numbers among the 

 white, and finally the circulation stops altogether. At 

 this stage red corpuscles pass through the walls of the 

 vessels as well as the white, and the latter multiplying 

 rapidly in the spaces of the tissue outside the blood- 

 vessels, and undergoing certain other slight changes, are 

 converted into pus corpuscles. 



The appearances just described seem to indicate that 

 the condition of the imlls of the capillaries (and of the 

 smallest veins and arteries) plays a veiy important part 

 in determining the characteristics of the normal circulation 

 through these passages. And since in an inflamed area 

 the flow of blood becomes slower and slower, and ulti- 

 mately ceases, even while the blood-vessels are more 

 widely dilated than usual, the condition of the walls of 

 these vessels may evidently play a very important part in 

 determining variations in that "peripheral resistance" 

 which, as we have previously explained, is of paramount 

 importance to the working of the circulation throughout 

 every part of the whole body. Moreover it is evident 

 that the condition of the walls of the capillaries may also 

 at any moment modify the amount of the fluid part of the 

 blood which is continually passing out through those 

 walls as lymph (p. 84) for the nutrition of the neigh- 

 bouring tissues. 



Part IT.- The Lymphatic System and the Circulation 

 OF Lymph 



1. The General Arrangement of the Lymphatics.— 



Food, as we have .already pointed out (p. 23), after 

 digestion in the alimentary canal, is absorbed into the 

 blood-vessels and lacteals of that canal and whirled away in 

 the current of the circulation for distribution as nutritive 

 material to all parts of the body. But we have also 

 drawn attention to the fact (p. 31) that the ultimate 



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