THE ABSORBENT SYSTEM 



299 



noids and sugars are chiefly absorbed by the blood vessels 

 and go to the liver. The fats pass on into the lacteals, 

 which receive their name from the milky appearance 

 of the chyle. These lacteals unite into larger trunks, 

 which lie in the mesentery 

 (or membrane which sus- 

 pends the intestine from 

 the back wall of the ab- 

 domen), and these pour 

 their contents into one 

 large vessel, the thoracic 

 duct, lying along the 

 backbone, and joining the 

 jugular vein in the neck. 



The lacteals are only a 

 special part of the great 

 lymphatic system, which 

 absorbs and carries to the 

 thoracic duct matter from 

 all parts of the body. 107 

 The lymph is a transpar- 

 ent fluid having many 

 white blood corpuscles. 

 It is, in fact, blood, minus 

 the red corpuscles, while 

 chyle is the same fluid ren- 

 dered milky by numerous 



fat globules. During the FlG . 258 ._ Prin dpal Lymphatics of the Hu- 



intervals of digestion, the man Body: * union of left J u s ular and 



subclavian veins; b, thoracic duct; c, re- 

 laCteals Carry Ordinary ceptaculum chyli. The oval bodies are 



lymph. This fluid is the 



overflow of the blood the plasma and white corpuscles 

 which escape from the blood capillaries, and carry nutri- 

 ment to, and waste from, those parts of the various tis- 

 sues which are not in contact with the blood capillaries. 



