276 BIOLOGICAL PHYSICS 



and physiological, agencies, and the use of absorptive 

 media, adapted to the transference of the digested material, 

 from the intestinal canal, to the various vasculatures 

 leading to the central, or blood, circulation : in which, it 

 but illustrates the truth we have contended for, namely : 

 circulatio circulatlonum omnia circulatio, and that oneness of 

 design, or purpose, and continuity of operation of the 

 various means devised for the accomplishment of it, mark 

 its every stage, Thus, the mechanical trituration of the 

 articles of food is accomplished, simultaneously, with their 

 softening and partial liquefaction, as well as their admix- 

 ture with the chemically-reducing agencies of saliva, and 

 the linguo-tonsillo-pharyngeal cerebro-spinal, residual and, 

 perhaps, fermentative excretion, which they gather from 

 every papillary, height, and hollow (Fig. 112), as they 

 are buffeted from side to side in measured mastica- 

 tion, or eddy round the tonsillar promontories, encircle 

 the pendulous body of the uvula, as they drag past its 

 obstructing presence, or as they impinge on the cavernous 

 walls of the pharynx, ere they are plunged into the 

 narrow lumen of the oesophagus, lined by a mucosa, from 

 the surface of which is detached, by their passage, a viscid 

 fluid, which, in turn, must necessarily add to the digestive 

 agencies already at work, in the accomplishment of the 

 great common end. Reaching the stomach (see Fig. 1 13), 

 another, and the greatest, chemical influence, is brought 

 to bear, on their reduction to a state of fluidity, and 

 chemical composition, suitable for trans-sudation through 

 the gastric wall, preparatory to the production, and trans- 

 mission, of the residual, or resultant, chyme, into the 

 small intestine, where admixture with physiologically 

 elaborated juices, and ferments, breaks them up into a 

 state of physical consistence, or chyle, suitable for absorp- 

 tion by its lining mucosa (Fig. 114), and circulation 

 through its related lacteals. During the operation of 

 these agencies, a remainder is left, which has resisted their 

 combined, mechanical, chemical, and physiological, influ- 

 ences, and which, in turn, is ushered into the larger 

 intestine, to be subjected to further reduction, and 

 disintegration, in order to fit it for passage through the 

 meshes of the surrounding mucosa, and this is accom- 



