NATURAL THEOLOGY. 179 



testines converted into pulp; and though lately 

 consisting of ten different viands, reduced to near- 

 ly a uniform substance, and to a state fitted for 

 yielding its essence, which is called chyle, but 

 which is milk, or more nearly resembling milk 

 than any other liquor with which it can be com- 

 pared. For the straining off this fluid from the 

 digested aliment in the course of its long progress 

 through the body, myriads of capillary tubes, i. c, 

 pipes as small as hairs, open their orifices into the 

 cavity of every part of the intestines. These 

 tubes, which are so fine and slender as not to be 

 visible unless when distended with chyle, soon 

 unite into larger branches. The pipes formed by 

 this union terminate in glands, from which other 

 pipes, of a still larger diameter, arising, carry the 

 chyle from all parts into a common reservoir or 

 receptacle. This receptacle is a bag of size 

 enough to hold about two table-spoons full ; and 

 from this vessel a duct or main pipe proceeds, 

 climbing up the back part of the chest, and after- 

 wards creeping along the gullet till it reach the 

 neck. Here it meets the river ; here it discharges 

 itself into a large vein, which soon conveys the 

 chyle, now flowing along with the old blood, to 

 the heart. This whole route can be exhibited to 

 the eye; nothing is left to be supplied by imagi- 

 nation or conjecture. Now, besides the subser- 

 viency of this structure, collectively considered, 

 to a manifest and necessary purpose, we may re- 

 mark two or three separate particulars in it, which 



