Ql'O Medicine. 



that the annals of anatomy can boast. Under tlie 

 influence of this impression. Dr. Hunter declkredy 

 in one of his lectures, that " in looking over the 

 " whole progress of anatomy, from the time o£ 

 " Aristotle -to . the present day, there have been 

 " only hoo' grand, discoveries with regard to the 

 ^f physiology of our; bodies; to wit, the Vascular 

 'i si/i^tem, or circulation' of the blood., and the Ab^ 

 ^_!' 'Sorbent system; the Brain and Nervous system 

 ^' having b^cn known long before." 

 oNptwithstanding, however, the weight of the 

 arguments adduced by Dr. Hunter, Dr. Monro, 

 and others, in support of this doctrine of the ab- 

 sorbent system, it has been opposed by writers of 

 great authority. The old opinion, that the veins 

 perform the office of absorbents, w^as held by 

 Haller" and Meckel. Within a few years, Mr. 

 HuMPAGE, in a work entitled " Physiological Re- 

 " searches into the most important Parts of the 

 *'; Animal Economy, &c." undertook to controvert 

 the prevailing doctrine on this subject. He en- 

 deavours to prove, conformably to the opinion of 

 the old anatomists, that the lacteals and lymphatics 

 constitute systems of vessels entirely separate and 

 distinct. He admits that the lacteals arise from 

 the internal surface of the alimentary canal, termi- 

 nate in the thoracic duct, and convey the chyle 

 into the blood. But he denies that the lymphatics 

 arise from cavities and surfaces, or tliat they ter- 

 minate in the thoracic duct; and maintains, on the 

 contrary, that they originate from the heart and 

 arteries, that they serve to convey lymph from the 

 blood, and that they terminate on all surfaces and 

 cavities. He contends that the use of the lym- 

 phatic glands is for the separation of the lymph 

 •from the blood; and that the lymphatic vessels arc 



