354 THE LYMPH AND ITS MOVEMENTS 



After a time a plethoric state would be reached which would cause stagnation 

 unless the fluid entering the capillaries were rapidly drained off in the blood 

 stream. In fact it is found that perfusion of fresh serum through the blood 

 vessels of a dead animal accelerates the process of absorption very materially. 



Besides we are not to suppose that the mechanisms here spoken of are every- 

 where the means of absorption of fluids by membranes, for it is fairly certain 

 that in the absorption of substances by the frog's skin the epidermal cells take 

 up the substance from the outside and pass it over into the inside. A surviving 

 frog's skin placed between solutions of NaCI of equal strength will take up salt 

 from the outside surface and pass it through to the inside surface a thing which 

 does not occur in the dead skin. Similar phenomena have also been mentioned 

 in connection with the absorption from the intestine of mammals (page 301). 



Solid particles also like milk droplets, carmine granules, etc., can be absorbed 

 from the serous cavities probably by way of the lymph spaces. They can also 

 be ingested and carried away by leucocytes. 



Our conclusion must be that, aside from the passage of fluids into the open 

 channels [if such there be; cf. note page 347] communicating with the serous 

 cavities, the purely physicochemical processes of diffusion, chemical attraction, 

 molecular and capillary imbibition go far toward explaining the absorption of 

 liquids from those cavities. 



REFERENCES. A lexander Ellinger, "Die Bildung der Lymph" in "Die 

 Ergebnisse der Physiologic," I, 1, 1902. 



