254 ABSORPTION LYMPH AND CHYLE 



through the lungs. Turpentine, iodin and many medicinal substances 

 may be introduced with great rapidity by inhalation of their vapors ; 

 and the serious effects produced by the emanations from lead or mer- 

 cury, in persons who work in these articles, are well known. Water 

 and substances in solution, when injected into the respiratory passages, 

 are rapidly absorbed ; and poisons administered in this way manifest 

 their peculiar effects with great promptness. Experimenters on this 

 subject have shown the facility with which liquids may be absorbed 

 from the lungs and the air-passages, but it must be remembered that 

 the natural conditions are seldom such as to admit of this action. 



Absorption from Closed Cavities, Reservoirs of Glands, etc. Facts 

 in pathology, showing absorption from closed cavities, areolar tissue, 

 the muscular and nervous tissues, the conjunctiva, and other parts, are 

 sufficiently well known. In cases of effusion of serum into the pleural, 

 peritoneal, pericardial or synovial cavities, in which recovery takes 

 place, the liquid becomes absorbed. It has been shown by experiment 

 that warm water injected into these cavities is disposed of in the same 

 way. Effusions into the areolar tissue usually are removed by absorp- 

 tion. In cases of penetration of air into the pleura or the general 

 areolar tissue, absorption likewise takes place, showing that gases may. 

 be taken up in this way as well as liquids. Effusions of blood beneath 

 the skin or the conjunctiva or in the muscular or nervous tissue may 

 become entirely or in part absorbed. As regards absorption from the 

 areolar tissue, the administration of remedies by the hypodermatic 

 method is a familiar evidence of the facility with which soluble sub- 

 stances are taken into the blood when introduced beneath the skin. 



Under some conditions, absorption takes place from the reservoirs 

 of glands, the watery portions of the secretions usually being taken up, 

 leaving the solid and the organic matters. It is supposed that the bile 

 becomes inspissated when it has remained for a time in the gall-bladder, 

 even when the natural flow of the secretion is not interrupted. Cer- 

 tainly, when the duct is obstructed, absorption of a portion of the bile 

 takes place, as is shown by coloration of the conjunctiva and even of 

 the general surface. The serum of the blood, under these conditions, 

 is strongly colored with bile. It is probable, also, that some of the 

 watery portions of the urine are reabsorbed by the mucous membrane 

 of the urinary bladder when the urine has been long confined in its cavity, 

 although this reabsorption is ordinarily very slight. Absorption may take 

 place from the ducts and the parenchyma of glands, although this occurs 

 chiefly when foreign substances have been injected into these parts. 



Absorption of Fats and Insoluble Substances. In studying the 

 mechanism of the penetration of fatty particles into the intestinal villi, 



