EXTRACT II. B. 



ON THE INGEST4, AND EGEST4, AND THE PROCESS 

 OF DISPOSAL OF THE LATTER, WITH OBSERVA- 

 TIONS ON THERAPEUTICS, AND PATHOGENESIS. 



THE ingesta are almost entirely taken into the body by 

 the mouth, the exceptions being atmospheric air, with its 

 material admixtures, and the very uncertain quantity 

 imbibed by the cutaneous surface. They comprise solid, 

 liquid, and gaseous materials, with a conceivable quan- 

 tity of finely disintegrated inorganic, as well as living 

 organic, material, not amenable to measurement by 

 the most delicate methods of detection yet known to 

 science. 



From the time these ingesta reach the stage of perfect 

 metabolism, they begin to assume the character and pursue 

 their course as egesta, and are ultimately disposed of at 

 the innumerable points of exit, and surfaces of exudation 

 and exfoliation, by the various egestive processes at work 

 throughout the body, as residual or waste materials. The 

 principal examples of these egestive processes are the 

 alvine, the renal, the pulmonary, and the cutaneous. 

 Some of the ingesta are cast out of the body directly, 

 without metabolic change, in a more or less solid condi- 

 tion, as unutilisable or harmful, by the alimentary ap- 

 paratus. Some, after a more or less appreciable interval 

 of time and use, are cast out in a liquid condition by the 

 kidneys, some are eliminated in a vaporous or gaseous 

 condition by the lungs, while some are exhaled, transuded, 

 or perspired in a more or less sensibly consistent condition, 

 by the skin, and as more or less solid epidermal and epithelial 



