0,6s Medicine. [Chap. IV; 



that tlie annals of anatomy can boast. Under the 

 influence of this impression. Dr. Hunter declared, 

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

 whole progress of anatomy, from the time of Ari- 

 stotle to the present day, there have been only txvo 

 grand discoveries vi^ith regard to the physiology of 

 our bodies, — to wit, the vascular system^ or cirxvla- 

 Hon of the blood, and the absorbent system; — the 

 brain and nervous system having been knov/n long 

 before." 



Notwithstanding, however, the weight of the 

 arguments adduced by Dr. Hunter, Dr. Monro, 

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

 bent system, it has been opposed by writers of 

 great authority. The old opinion^ that the veins 

 perform the office of absorbents, was 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 the lym- 

 phatics constitute systems of vessels entirely separate 

 and distinct. He admits that the lacteals arise 

 from the internal surface of the alimentary canal, 

 terminate in the thoracic duct, and convey the chyle 

 into the blood : but he denies that the lymphatics 

 arise from cavities and surfaces, or that they termi- 

 nate 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 



* Element. Physiolog. Corp. Human. I. 24, § 2, 3. 



