CHAP. V. 



ON THE MANIFESTATION OF CUBKENT FOBCE DUEING 

 LACTEAL ABSOEPTION*. 



Fbom the results that have been detailed in the 

 last chapter, I was naturally led to suppose, that' 

 during lacteal absorption some evidence might he 

 obtained of the manifestation of current force; since 

 an identity between this process and secretion has 

 been long recognised by physiologists. Mullee* 

 says, " absorption {lacteal) seems to depend on an 

 attraction, the nature of which is at present uif 

 known, but of which the very counterpart, as it were, 

 takes place in secretion; the fluids altered by the 

 secreting action being repelled towards the free side 

 only of the secreting membranes, and then pressed 

 onwards by the successive portions of fluid secreted." 



" My original Papers, on the Developement of Current Force 

 daring Lacteal Absorption, Nutrition, in the Muscular and the 

 Nervous Tissues, and in Plants, were communicated and read 

 before the Boyal Society in 1832. It being decided that they 

 should not be published in the Transactions, they were ordered 

 to be placed in the Archives of the Society. Upon wishing to 

 refer to these three Papers two years afterwards, they were 

 missing from the Archives of the Society, and were ultimately 

 found to be in the hands of the referee ! ! ! 



<• Elements of Physiology, translated by Baly, 2nd edition, 

 vol. i. p. 301. 



