CHAPTER VIII. 



OF THE MANNER IN WHICH THE LYMPH IS SECRETED INTO 



HAVING in the preceding chapter spoken of the properties 

 of the lymph moistening the different cavities of the body, I 

 shall in this consider the manner in which that lymph is 

 formed, or secreted from the mass of blood. 



The most generally received opinions concerning this secre- 

 tion have been, that it was performed either by small exhalant 

 arteries, or else by pores on the sides of the vessels, which 

 pores were believed to be organized. 



But these opinions have been controverted by a celebrated 

 anatomist, 1 who has endeavoured to prove that this secretion 

 was not performed by exhalant arteries, or an effect of what is 

 properly called organization, but merely by the thinner or 

 more watery parts of the blood nitrating or transuding through 

 the inorganized interstices between the fibres of our vessels 

 and membranes ; so that, according to this idea, the fibres of 

 our vessels were close enough to retain the serum, or the red 

 globules, but not close enough to prevent the water oozing out 

 as through a sieve, and the arguments with which this doctrine 

 is supported are as follow : 



First. The ready transudation of water and other injections 

 after death. 



Secondly. The transudation of blood after death, but not 

 during life; for during life he supposes the blood to be thick- 

 ened by the coagulable lymph ; but when that lymph is jel- 

 lied, he concludes the rest of the blood is thereby made thinner, 

 and therefore more capable of oozing through the inorganized 

 interstices by which it could not pass before. 



Thirdly. The transudation of bile, which he thinks takes 



1 Dr. Hunter. 



