THE PERITONEAL CAVITY. 327 



a direct interchange between the fluid in the cavities and the 

 blood in the vessels. Cohnstein,* likewise, has found these 

 phenomena in direct accord with the principles of osmosis. 



Comparable with the preceding observations, and indicating 

 the immediate importance of the blood-vessels in absorption 

 within the tissues, are experiments by I. Munk.f He severed 

 the truncus lymphaticus colli, which conducts away the total 

 lymph from the head in the rabbit, and removed the lymph 

 coming from the cephalic end of the duct. When strychnine 

 was thereupon injected under the skin of the head, no delay in 

 the oncoming or intensity of tetanic symptoms was observed, 

 although the blood-vessels formed the only channel of com- 

 munication with the general circulation. Furthermore, no 

 strychnine could be detected in the lymph collected from the 

 head. Again, Wertheimer and Lepage \ have demonstrated 

 the active participation of the blood-vessels of the liver in the 

 absorption of substances from the bile. When a solution of 

 indigo-carmine was allowed to flow into the ductus choledo- 

 chus of a dog at a pressure of 30 cm., the urine collected from 

 the ureter was found to be blue some minutes before the lymph 

 flowing from the thoracic duct showed a trace of the pigment. 

 The authors conclude that the lymphatics play a subordinate 

 part, at most, hi this process of absorption. 



In a recent paper Meltzer || has reviewed the investigations 

 of Starling and Tubby. Admitting that their experiments 

 "if confirmed, would indeed prove the correctness of the 

 blood-vessel theory of absorption," Meltzer has repeated them 

 and has presented the protocols of a series of further experi- 

 ments which lead him to quite different conclusions. The 

 method of experimentation was essentially that employed by 



* Cohnstein, Centralblatt fiir Physiologie, 1895, ix, p. 403. 



t Munk, I., Archiv fiir Physiologie, 1895, p. 387. 



| "Wertheimer and Lepage, Archives de Physiologie, 1897, p. 373. 



Page 374 : " Ces quelques exemples sufflsent pour prouver non seulement 

 que les vaisseaux sanguins prennent une part active a la re'sorption du pig- 

 ment bleu, mais encore que les lymphatiques n'y ont qu'une part tres 

 restreinte." 



|| Meltzer, Journal of Physiology, 1897, xxii, p. 198. 



