150 



PHYSIOLOGY. 



It is interesting as well as curious, to note that some of the 

 minera and vegetable poisons are more readily absorbed from the 



rectum than the stomach. Thus, it 

 has been ascertained that strychnine 

 in solution will produce toxic effects 

 very much sooner when injected into 

 the rectum than when administered 

 by the stomach. When administered 

 in solid form the reverse is true. 



THE LYMPHATIC SYSTEM. 



Having previously dwelt upon 

 absorption as it occurs in the alimen- 

 tary tract, it remains to turn our at- 

 tention to the next important process 

 in the general absorption of the body. 

 It is the absorption from within as 

 accomplished by the lymphatic sys- 

 tem. By it as an instrument those 

 materials of the alimentary end-pro- 

 ducts that were not taken up by the 

 villi are collected and transported 

 back into the regular blood-stream, 

 while, on the other hand, fluid which 

 has escaped from the blood-vessels 

 and has not been used by the tissues 

 is gathered up and again carried back 

 into the blood-stream. Very fre- 

 quently this fluid gathered from the 

 tissues of the body after it has given 

 up much of its nutriment to the tis- 

 sues contains numerous bacteria, 

 pathogenic and otherwise, as well as 

 particles of waste-matter from the 

 tissues. These are normally destroyed 

 by the lymphocytes; if the foreign 

 particles are too numerous for imme- 

 diate destruction, they are stored up 

 in the lymphatic glands, or, more 



properly, nodes, until the lymphocytes 

 phatics of the Internal Surface of / -, -. 



the Lower Limb. (SAPPEY.) are able to dispose of them. 



