29'8 Magendie on Msorption, 



mere vital action, and that the absorbing orifices exercise a 

 sort of choice; but it carries with it no degree of improba- 

 bihty when once absorption is assimilated to a physical op- 

 eration. 



These consequences have a relation not only to a healthy 

 state of the body ; but how many pathological phenomena 

 may not be more easily understood and explained by com- 

 paring them with the experiments which I have related! 



The cure of the dropsy, of obstructions, and of inflamma- 

 tions by bleeding; the evident want of the action of medica- 

 ments in violent fevers, when the vascular system is strongly 

 distended; the practice of some physicians who purge and 

 bleed their patients preparatory to administering active med- 

 icines ; the employment of Peruvian bark during the re- 

 cess, and for the cure of intermitting fevers ; the general 

 or partial Edema in cases of organic affections of the heart 

 or lungs; the use of ligatures applied to members that have 

 been stung or bitten by venomous animals, to prevent the 

 deleterious effects that would otherwise ensue, &c. Sic. 



As to the influence that the knowledge of these facts may 

 m future have over the manner of treating different affec- 

 tions, it appears to me likely that every physician sufficient- 

 ly enlightened to relinquish ancient prejudices, will find in 

 the single circumstance of the greater or less absorbing pow- 

 er of the blood vessels, in proportion as they are more or 

 less distended, a fruitful source of curative indications. 



From the above experiments I conclude that the capilla- 

 ry attraction of the smaller blood-vessels, appears to be the 

 cause, or, more properly, one of the causes of what is 

 termed venous absorption. 



This conclusion does not, in any manner, interfere witlt 

 the absorption of chyle which is effected in the small intes- 

 tines by the chylous vessels ; an absorption with which I 

 shall occupy myself specially hereafter; still less does it in- 

 terfere with the absorbing power of the lymphatic vessels ; 

 nevertheless, the experiments above described seem to in- 

 dicate that if, in most cases, these vessels do not absorb, this 

 circumstance is owing to the want of a current in their 

 interior, and not to any particular quality of the vessels them 

 selves, which possess the same physical properties as the 

 veins. 



In supposing that I am not mistaken, either in the facts 

 which I have related, or in the consequences I have de- 



