184 LYMPHATIC SYSTEM. 



who, besides showing the fallacy of the experiments brought 

 in favour of the common veins doing the office of absorption, 

 have advanced the following to prove that the lymphatics per- 

 form it. 



First. Their great analogy with the lacteals, with which they 

 agree in their coats, in their valves, in their manner of ramify- 

 ing, in their passage through the lymphatic or conglobate 

 glands, and in their termination in the thoracic duct, and, in 

 short, in every circumstance with regard to their structure ; 

 and thence it is probable that they also agree with them in 

 their use. And as the lacteals are known to begin from the 

 surface of the intestines, and to be the absorbents of these 

 parts, the lymphatics may begin from the other cavities of the 

 body, and may absorb the fluids which had lubricated those 

 cavities. 



Secondly. The passage of the venereal, variolous, and other 

 poisons into the constitution ; these poisons first making an 

 ulcer, and then being absorbed along with the matter of the 

 ulcer, and infecting the whole body. That in such cases they 

 are not absorbed by the common veins, but by the lymphatics, 

 appears from their inflaming these lymphatics in their course, 

 and by their generally inflaming a conglobate gland before 

 they enter the system; a strong argument in favour of their 

 being taken up by the lymphatic vessels, which pass through 

 these glands in their way to the thoracic duct. 1 



These two are the principal arguments by which the doc- 

 trine of the lymphatics being a system of absorbents has been 

 supported. Experiments made by injections in the dead body, 

 where such injections have been forced from the arteries into 

 the cellular membrane, and from the cellular membrane into 

 the lymphatics, have been likewise brought in favour of this 



1 See Dr. Hunter's Medical Commentaries. See also Dr. Monro, De Vasis Lymph. 

 Valv. 



experience, abilities, and veracity are unquestionable, told me, upon 

 my asking this question, that he had once opened a little tumour upon 

 the temple, that contained only pure blood, and that there was no bone 

 under it. He supposed that the blood had dissolved that part of the 

 skull upon which it lay." a 



a Med. Obs. and Inq. by a Society of Phys, in London, i, 344-5, 8vo, 1757. 



