PART IX. 



GENERAL ANATOMY OF THE ABSORBENT SYSTEM. 



THE absorbent vessels are small transparent tubes, of a deli- 

 cate structure, which exist in considerable numbers, in almost 

 every part of the body. 



These tubes originate upon the surfaces of all the cavities of 

 the body ; and of the cellular membrane, in all the various parts 

 into which it penetrates ; upon the internal surface of the 

 stomach and the intestines; and probably upon the skin.* 



The Absorbent System is frequently described under the 

 name of the lymphatic ; but this latter term is not so appro- 

 priate as the former, as a generic name, since it applies only to 

 that large portion of the system whose office it is to take up the 

 serous fluids and such effete substances as are found in the midst 

 of the organs exterior to the cavities of the sanguineous capilla- 

 ries ; whilst another portion called the lacteals, originate from 

 the villous surface of the intestinal canal, for the purpose of 

 taking up and transporting the product of digestion under the 

 form of chyle. Both the lacteals and proper lymphatics, how- 

 ever, may be appropriately described under the name of absorb- 

 ents, as they are precisely similar in respect to structure, unite 

 together so as to form common trunks, and discharge their con- 

 tents by a common orifice into the venous system. 

 The existence of the absorbent system was unknown to the 

 ancients : for although Herophilus and Erasistralus discovered 

 parts of it in their dissections of large animals at Alexandria 

 in Egypt, they were perfectly unconscious of the peculiar func- 

 tions it performed in the economy ; and so little worthy of 



* See vol. i. p. 423. 



