THE LYMPHATIC SYSTEM. 323 



the alimentary canal and adjacent glands, becoming somewhat 

 altered in constitution at each passage, but still serving to renovate 

 alternately the constitution of the blood and the ingredients of the 

 digestive secretions. Furthermore the elements of the blood itself 

 also transude in part from the capillary vessels, and are again taken 

 up, by absorption, by the lymphatic vessels, to be finally restored 

 to the returning current of the venous blood, in the immediate 

 neighborhood of the heart. 



The daily quantity of all the fluids, thus secreted and reabsorbed 

 during twenty-four hours, will enable us to estimate the activity 

 with which endosmosis and exosmosis go on in the living body. 

 In the following table, the quantities are all calculated for a man 

 weighing 140 pounds. 



SECRETED AND REABSORBED DURING 24 HOURS. 

 Saliva 20,164 grains, or 2.880 pounds. 



Gastric juice 98,000 " " 14.000 " 

 Bile 16.940 " " 2.420 " 



Pancreatic juice 13,104 " " 1.872 " 

 Lymph 27,048 " " 3.864 ' 



1 25.036 



A little over twenty-five pounds, therefore, of the animal fluids 

 transude through the internal membranes and are restored to the 

 blood by reabsorption in the course of a single day. It is by this 

 process that the natural constitution of the parts, though constantly 

 changing, is still maintained in its normal condition by the move- 

 ment of the circulating fluids, and the incessant renovation of their 

 nutritious materials. 



