264 RETROGRADE SECT. XXIX. 7. 5, 



falivation having come on, repeated purges every day, for a week 

 or two, are required to eliminate the mercury from the conftitu- 

 tion. For this acrid metallic preparation, being abforbed by the 

 mouths of the ladteals, continues, for a time arrefted by the mef- 

 enteric glands, (as the variolous or venereal poifons fwell the 

 fubaxillar or inguinal glands) : and, during the operation of a 

 cathartic, is returned into the inteftines by the inverted action 

 of the lac'reals, and thus carried out of the fyitem. 



Hence we underftand the ufe of vomits or purges, to thofe 

 who have fwallowed either contagious or poiionous materials, 

 even though exhibited a day or even two days after fuch acci- 

 dents ; namely, that by the retrograde motions of the lateals 

 and lymphatics, the material Hill arreited in the mefenteric, or 

 other glands, may be eliminated from the body. 



3. Many initances of milk and chyle found in ulcers are giv- 

 en by Haller, El. Phyfiol. t. vii. p. 12, 23, which admit of no 

 other explanation than by fuppofmg, that the chyle, imbibed by 

 one branch of the abforbent fyitem, was carried ro the ulcer, by 

 the inverted motions of another branch of the fame fyitem. 



4. Mrs. P. on the fecond day after delivery, was feized with 

 a violent purging, in which, though opiates mucilages, the bark, 

 and teftacea were profufely ufed, continued many days, till at 

 length (he recovered During the time of this purging, no milk 

 could be drawn from her breads ; but the (tools appeared like 

 the curd of milk broken into fmall pieces. In this cafe, was not 

 the milk taken up from the follicles of the pectoral glands, and 

 thrown on the inteftines, by a retrogreflion of the inteitinal ab- 

 forbents ? for how can v/e fora moment iuipecl: that the mucous 

 glands of the inteftines could feparate pure milk from the blood ? 

 Dr. Smellie has obterved, that loofe (tools, mixed with milk, 

 which is curdled in the inteftines, frequently relieves the tur- 

 gefcency of the breafts of thofe who ftudioufly repel their milk. 

 Cafes in Midwifery, 43, No. 2. i. 



5. J.F. Meckel obferved in a patient, whofe urine was in fmall 

 quantity and high coloured, that a copious fweat under the arniP' 

 pits, of a perfectly urinous fmell, itained the linen ; which ceaf- 

 ed again when the ufual quantity of urine was difcharged by the 

 urethra. Here we muft believe from analogy, that the urine 

 was firft fecreted in the kidneys, then re-abforbed by the increaf- 

 ed action of the urinary lymphatics, and laftly carried to the ax- 

 illse by the retrograde motions of the lymphatic branches of 

 thofe parts. As in the jaundice it is neceflary. that the bile 

 fhould firft be fecreted by the liver, and re-abforbed into the cir- 

 culation, to produce the yellownefs of the (kin j as was form- 

 erly demonitrated by the late Dr. Munro, (Edin. Medical Ef- 



fays) 



