ABSORPTION. 



states of that cavity, both congenital and mor- 

 bid, including also the abnormal states of its 

 parietes, we prefer to bring together in a sepa- 

 rate article under the head CAVITY ABDO- 

 MINAL, to which we beg to refer the reader. 

 The special anatomy, both natural and ab- 

 normal, of the several abdominal viscera is 

 distributed among the articles INTESTINAL 

 CANAL, KIDNEY, LIVER, PANCREAS, SPLEEN, 

 SUPRARENAL CAPSULE. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. The several systematic writers, 

 as Winslow, Boyer, Portal, Bichat, Meckel, Cloquet, 

 Marjolin, Hildebrandt, &c. for the titles of whose 

 respective works seethe Bibliography of ANATOMY, 

 (Introduction. ) Velpeau, Anat. Chirurgicale. Paris, 

 1833. t. ii. Blandin, Anat. Topographique. Cru 

 veil/tier, Dictionnaire de Med. et Chirurg. art. Abdo- 

 men. Beclard et Berard, Diet, de Medecine. 

 Ed. 2d. art. Abdomen. Pierer Anatomisch- 

 Physiologisches Realworterbuch. herausgegeben 

 von J. F. Pierer. Leipzig, 1816. art. Abdominal- 

 muskeln. Gerdy, Anat. des formes exterieures. 

 Paris, 1829. p. 122 and 199. Cloquet, Recherches 

 Anat. sur les Hernies de 1' Abdomen, or the trans* 

 lation by McWhinnie. Lond. 1835. Scarpa, on 

 Hernia, by Wishart. Lawrence on ditto. Todd, on 

 ditto. Dub. Hosp. Reports, vol. i. Flood's plates of 

 Inguinal and Femoral Hernia. Lond. 1834. Cam- 

 per, Icones Herniarum. Guthrie, on Inguinal and 

 Femoral Hernia. A. Cooper, on ditto, and on the 

 Testicle. Manec, Dissertation Inaugurale sur 1'Her- 

 nie.1826. Colles's Surgical Anatomy. Dublin, 1811. 

 Barclay on Muscular Motion, p. 337 et sqq. 



( R. B. Todd.) 



ABSORPTION in physiology (from ab- 

 sorbeo: Lat. absorptio, Fr. absorption, Ger. 

 die einsaugung, Ital. assorbimento.} The term 

 absorption is employed in physiology to de- 

 signate a vital organic function, the primary or 

 immediate object of which is to furnish the 

 system with a due supply of matter for its 

 growth and subsistence. It is proposed, in the 

 following article, first, to give an account of 

 the organs by which the function is performed ; 

 this will lead us, 2dly, to consider the question 

 of venous absorption ; in the third place, we 

 shall inquire into the mode in which the ab- 

 sorbents act ; and, lastly, we shall offer some 

 remarks upon the specific uses of the different 

 parts of the absorbent system, and upon the re- 

 lation which it bears to the other vital functions. 



. 1 . Description of the Absorbent System. 

 We propose, in the first instance, to restrict the 

 term absorbent system to those organs, which 

 are supposed to be exclusively appropriated to 

 the function of absorption ; these may be in- 

 cluded under the two heads of vessels and 

 glands, the vessels being again subdivided into 

 the lacteals and the lymphatics. 



Although the absorbents are distributed to al- 

 most every part of the body, and perform so im- 

 portant an office in the animal economy, they 

 were among the organs which were the latest 

 in being discovered by anatomists. There are, 

 indeed, some passages in the writings of Galen,* 

 which would lead us to suppose that certain 



' De Anat. Admin, lib. 7, sub finem; De usu 

 partium, lib. 4. cap. 19; An sanguis in arteriis 

 c. cap. 5. 



parts of the absorbents had been seen by 

 Erasistratus and Herophilus, as well as by 

 himself; but it appears that they were, all of 

 them, unacquainted with the relation which 

 these vessels bore to the other organs, and were 

 entirely ignorant of their office and destination. 

 These scanty observations of the ancients seem 

 to have been entirely neglected, or even for- 

 gotten, until the study of anatomy was revived, 

 together with that of the other medical sciences, 

 in the sixteenth century. In the course of the 

 researches which were then made into the 

 structure of the animal body, various parts of 

 the absorbent system appear to have been 

 brought into view, and are noticed, among other 

 writers, by Fallopio,* who discovered the lym- 

 phatics, connected with some of the abdominal 

 viscera, and by Eustachio,f who detected the 

 thoracic duct. But although their descriptions, 

 especially that of Eustachio, are sufficiently 

 correct to enable us to identify them, as forming 

 a part of the absorbent vessels, yet they were 

 unacquainted with their specific nature and 

 office, and with their relation to the sangui- 

 ferous system. 



It is generally admitted that the merit of the 

 discovery of the lacteals is due to Aselli ; this 

 discovery he made in the year 1622. While 

 he was examining the abdominal viscera of 

 a dog, he observed a series of vessels attached 

 to the mesentery, which appeared to have no 

 direct connexion with the arteries or veins, and 

 which, from the circumstance of their con- 

 taining a white opake fluid, he denominated 

 Lacteals. J 



He regarded them as a distinct set of vessels, 

 exercising a specific function, distinct from 

 that of the sanguiferous system, and he as- 

 certained that they took their origin from the 

 surface of the intestines, and proceeded to- 

 wards the more central parts of the body, but 

 it was not until the year 1651, that their ter- 

 mination in the thoracic duct was discovered by 

 Pecquet. 



The discovery of the other species of ab- 

 sorbent vessels, styled, from the appearance 



* " Observ. de Venis," lib. 3., in Op. p. 532 ; 

 first published in 1561. We may add the names of 

 Fabricio, Piso, and Gassendi, who appear to have 

 seen certain parts of the lymphatics, although they 

 were not aware of their specific nature. See Bar- 

 tholin, de Lact. Thor. c. 2 ; and Mascagni, Vas. 

 Lymph. Hist. Proleg. sub init. 



t De Vena sine pari, Antig. 13, sub finem, in 

 Opusc. Anat. ; first published in 1564. See Haller, 

 Bibl. Anat., p. 224 ; also Douglas, Bibliog. Anat., 

 p. 99. 



t Dissertatio de Lactibus; first published in 1627. 

 See Bartholin, de Lact. Thor., c. 4 ; Sheldon on 

 the Absorbent Syst., p. 20, 1. Aselli's work is ac- 

 companied by plates of very rude execution, but 

 sufficiently expressive of the object. 



Exper. nova anat. ; first published in 1651 ; 

 Bartholin, c. 5. In 1652, Van Home published 

 the first plate of the thoracic duct. There is some 

 reason to suppose that Vesling had an imperfect view 

 of it previous to Pecquet ; he published his Syntagma 

 Anat. in 1647. In describing the pancreas he speaks 

 of the venae lacteae, lately discovered by Aselli, 

 which convey the chyle to the liver, and figures 

 them in tab. 4. fig. 3. 



