i:?08 Medicine. 



WiNSLOW, and the first Monro, greatly contribute 

 ed to the same end, and are familiarly known to 

 all the cultivators of this science. 



But the most memorable discovery that anatomy 

 can boast in the eighteenth century is that of the 

 absorbent system. It has been mentioned that 

 RuDBEc and Bartholine became acquainted with 

 the lymphatic vessels about the middle of the pre- 

 ceding century. When they were first seen and 

 traced into the thoracic duct, it might have been 

 supposed natural for anatomists to suspect, that as 

 the lacteals absorbed from the cavity of the intes- 

 tines, the lymphatics, similar in figure and structure, 

 might possibly perform the same office w^ith re- 

 spect to other parts of the body. Notwithstanding 

 this, anatomists in general, from repeated experi- 

 ments, particularly such as were made by injec- 

 tions, w^ere persuaded that these lymphatic vessels 

 did not arise from cavities, and did not absorb, but 

 w^ere merely continuations of the small arteries. 

 It had indeed been supposed by Dr. Glisson, who 

 wrote in 1654, that they arose from cavities, and 

 that their use was to absorb. Dr. Frederick Hoff- 

 man had also very explicitly laid down the doc- 

 trine of the lymphatic vessels being a system of 

 absorbents. These suggestions, however, produced 

 little eflPect. And it was reserved for Dr. Hunter, 

 of London, and Dr. Monro, the present professor 

 at Edinburgh, to prove that the lymphatics are ab- 

 sorbing vessels throughout the whole body; that 

 they are similar to the lacteals; that all these col- 

 lectively taken, together with the thoracic duct, 

 constitute one great and general sj/slein, dispersed 

 through the whole body, for the purpose of ab- 

 sorption ; that their sole office is absorption ; and, 

 finally, that they serve to take up and convey 

 whatever is to enter the composition of the blood, or 

 to be again mixed ivlth the bloody from the intesti- 



