3 88 RETROGRADE ABSORBENTS. SECT. XXIX. 7. 



VII. Translations of Matter, of Chyle, of Milk, of 

 Urine. Operation of purging Drugs applied exter- 

 nally. 



1. THE tranflations of matter from one part of 

 the body to another, can only receive an explana- 

 tion from the doctrine of the occafional retrograde 

 motions of fome branches of the lymphatic fyiterri : 

 for how can matter, abforhed and mixed with the 

 -whole mafs of blood, be fo haftily ..collected again 

 in any one part ? and is it not an immutable law, in 

 animal bodies, that each gland can fecrete no other, 

 but its own proper fluid ? which is, in part, fabri- 

 cated in the very gland by an animal procefs, which 

 it there undergoes: of thefe purulent tranflations 

 innumerable and very remarkable inftances are re- 

 corded. 



2. The chyk, which is feen among the materials 

 thrown up by violent vomiting, or in purging ftools, 

 .can only come thither by its having been poured 

 into the bowels by the inverted motions of the lac- 

 teals : for our aliment is not converted into chyle in 

 the ftomach or inteflines by a chemical procefs, but 

 is made in the very mouths of the la&eals ; or iq. 

 the mefenteric glands; in the fame manner as other 

 fecreted fluids are made by an animal procefs in 

 xheir adapted glands. 



Here a curious phenomenon in the exhibition of 

 mercury is worth explaining : If a moderate dole 

 of calomel, or fix or ten grains, be fwallowed, and 

 within one or two days a cathartic is given, a fali- 

 vation is prevented : but after three or four days, a 

 falivation having come on, repeated purges every 

 day, for a week or two, are required to eliminate 

 the mercury from the conflitution. For this acrid 

 metallic preparation, being abforbed by the mouths 

 of the Jackals, continues, for a time arrefted by the 



mefenteric 



