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ABSORBENT SYSTEM. 



Q. Do they resemble the veins in any other respects? 



*#. They resemble them in their frequent anastomoses; 

 in the aids the motion of their fluids require and receive 

 from adjacent pressure, and in the influence of gravity on 

 their fluids. 



Q. Why are the legs more swelled, in dropsy, in the 

 evening than in the morning? 



*#. Because of the influence of gravity on the absorb- 

 ents debilitated by disease. 



Q. Why does the arm swell more from pressure of the 

 head of the humerus in the axilla in certain cases, than 

 when extensive pressure is made on the upper part of the 

 arm? 



*#. Because in the axilla a greater number of absorbents 

 are compressed, and swelling of the limb below them 

 rather depends on this circumstance than on the extent of 

 the surface compressed. 



Q. What visceral enlargement has the greatest influence 

 in tumefying the lower extremities? 



#. That of the uterus, because in its enlargement it com- 

 presses the greatest number of absorbents. 



Q. Have the other abdominal viscera the power of pro- 

 ducing infiltration by this pressure ? 



#. They have not; and when this infiltration arises in 

 the diseases of other viscera, it is not from pressure but 

 from an increase in the vital forces of the exhalents. 



Q. What has heretofore been the ascribed cause of 

 dropsy from these visceral enlargements? 



*#. It was ascribed to an obstruction of the venous 

 blood causing effusion ; but it is really owing to an ob- 

 struction to the absorbents. 



Q. What is the structure of the absorbents? 



