172 LYMPHATIC SYSTEM. 



Nor do anatomists differ in their opinions about the mode 

 in which these fluids are taken up, for it is universally allowed 

 to be by absorption, or that there are small orifices (see Note 

 LXXXIII) adapted to imbibe them; the only question is, what the 

 vessels are to which these orifices belong, whether to the lympha- 

 tic system, or to the common veins (see Notes LXV* and LXXXII) . 



That the common veins did the office of absorbing both the 

 chyle and the lymph was the opinion of anatomists before 

 Asellius discovered the lacteals ; but after his time few doubts 

 were entertained of the lacteals absorbing, at least, a part of 

 that fluid. But most anatomists have been so tenacious of 

 the old opinion as still to believe, that the veins partly per- 

 formed that office, or absorbed some of the chyle and carried 

 it to the liver, 



As to the absorption of the lymph, they have been still 

 more positive of its being performed by the common veins ; 

 nay, even after the discovery of the lymphatic vessels it occurred 

 but to few that these vessels contributed in the least to this 

 absorption. And no wonder, since, besides the respect for the 

 contrary opinion, because it was transmitted from antiquity, 

 anatomists thought themselves possessed of many strong argu- 

 ments in favour of the common veins performing absorption ; 

 and as these arguments still continue to have weight with some 

 modern physiologists, we shall make a particular examination 

 of them in this chapter. 



First. That the common veins arise from cavities, especially 

 in the intestines, and do the office of absorption, is thought 

 probable from injections into these veins in dead bodies having 

 sometimes passed into those cavities, even in cases where but 

 little force was used. This is a circumstance which has oc- 

 curred in the experiments of the most eminent anatomists, both 

 of the past and of the present age, so that there is no fact in 

 anatomy in favour of which more respectable authorities might 

 be produced. And yet whoever has made numerous experi- 

 ments with injections, must be convinced how easy it is to be 



tion. In other trials, water seemed to be absorbed still more quickly 

 from beneath the skin. Blood injected, immediately after it was drawn, 

 into the pleura and into the peritoneum, was readily absorbed, but not 

 so rapidly as the water. 



