LYMPHATIC SYSTEM. 199 



Some cases of wounds of lymphatics are related by the late 

 Professor Monro, 1 who describes a white fungus as apt to arise 

 from them ; but since seeing the case above mentioned, I can- 

 not help suspecting that, notwithstanding the accuracy of that 

 gentleman, he had met with a deception of this sort. My 

 patient, like his, was cured by tight pressure, and lint dipped 

 in a solution of vitriol. 



When a blister is applied to a person not much weakened 

 by disease, as for example, behind the ear for the toothache, or 

 to one who labours under a violent fever or an inflammation, 

 we find, on removing the cuticle, a serous fluid discharged. 

 This fluid, I have found, coagulates by heat, exactly like the 

 serum of the blood, or the white of an egg. After this serous 

 fluid is let out from the blistered part, we sometimes see over 

 the inflamed skin a white crust or jelly, which is easily re- 

 moved, and seems to be the coagulable lymph of the blood, 

 which has been thrown out by the inflamed exhalant arteries, 

 and had jellied amidst the serum. When this jelly is more 

 condensed, it appears not much unlike a second cuticle. 2 



It is a fact universally admitted by physiologists, that all 

 parts of the human body are bibulous, or imbibe fluids applied 

 to them ; thus, garlic applied to the skin is soon smelt in the 

 breath, and turpentine rubbed upon any part of the body 

 soon gives to the urine a violet-like smell. In like manner, 

 poisonous substances are sometimes taken into the constitution. 

 The variolous matter, inserted under the skin by the point of 

 a lancet, produces the smallpox, and the venereal matter, in- 

 troduced by a chancre, occasions the lues venerea. These facts 

 have been long known, but it is still a question by what chan- 

 nels these substances enter the body, whether by the common 

 veins, which have most generally been suspected to absorb, or 

 by the lymphatic vessels (see Note LXXXII). 



How little probability there is of the common veins doing 

 this office has been observed above ; but there are many cir- 

 cumstances which prove that the lymphatic vessels perform it ; 

 and there are some appearances in diseases which cannot 

 otherwise be well accounted for. 



For example; after the insertion of the variolous matter 



1 Med. Essays, vol. v, art. xxvii. 



2 In dropsical cases the fluids discharged by blisters are more watery. 



