198 ABSORPTION BY LYMPHATICS. 



mistake to characterise the lacteals (with the lymphatics) as 

 Absorbents in any exclusive sense ; the fact being that their 

 function is limited to a special selective absorption, whilst 

 the more general action is performed by the blood-vessels. 



219. But the reservoir above-mentioned receives, not only 

 the lacteal vessels that bring nutritious matter from the intes- 

 tinal tube, but also lymphatics, which are absorbent vessels 

 of similar character, that originate in every part of the body. 

 These, also, pass through a set of (so-called) glands, in their 

 way towards this receptacle ; and the structure of these glands, 

 of which many are seated in the neck, some in the arm-pit, 

 others in the groin, &c., is exactly the same as that of the 

 mesenteric glands. The fluid they convey, which resembles 

 very dilute liquor sanguinis ( 229), seems evidently destined 

 to be again applied to the purposes of nutrition. There is 

 some obscurity as to its source ; but it seems probable that 

 it may partly consist of the residual fluid, which, having 

 escaped from the blood-vessels into the tissues, and having 

 furnished the latter with the materials of their nutrition, is 

 now to be returned to the former ; and partly of those par- 

 ticles of the body, which, though they have lost their vitality 

 in the course of the change it is continually undergoing, 

 have not undergone a degree of decay that unfits them for 

 serving, like the dead bodies of other animals, as a material 

 for reconstruction by the organizing process. The lymphatics, 

 being copiously distributed in the true Skin, absorb substances 

 which are introduced into its tissue ; and if these substances 

 be of an irritating nature, they may occasion an inflammatory 

 action in the absorbents and their glands. Thus when poisoned 

 wounds in the hand have been received, as in opening the 

 bodies of men or animals that have died of particular diseases, 

 the effect is usually manifested at first by heat and pain in the 

 arm, along which the inflamed absorbents can be traced as 

 hard cords ; and the glands in the arm-pit swell and become 

 tender. 



220. The lymphatics do not appear destined, however, to 

 absorb from the surface of the skin ; this function being per- 

 formed by the blood-vessels which are distributed abundantly 

 in its substance. It is a fact now well established, that when 

 the quantity of fluid in the body has been greatly reduced, 

 absorption of water through the skin may take place to a 



