A B S 



fons may converfewith him without danger: and beftdes,in cafe 

 of death, his fentence is fuppofed to be of fonie avail to him. 



Absolution is chiefly ufed among piotcftants for a fent- 

 ence, whereby a perfon, who (lands excommunicated, is re- 

 leafed or freed from that punifhment. 



ABSORBENTS, hom ahf/rbeo, to driiii nf>, in a gene- 

 ral fenfe, denote fubftances which polTefs the faculty of 

 ahforling, or fwallowing ijp others ; fueh are afhes, cloves, 

 plants, S:c. ; and earths oi various kinds. Allies are ahfor- 

 bont with refpeA to water, though not in the degree fup- 

 pofed by Arillotle, from wliom we derive a vulgar error, 

 that a pot full of allies will Hill abforb as much water as it 

 v.'ould contain if it were empty. Cloves abforb moifture to 

 fuch a degree, that we are told, if care be not taken in im- 

 porting them, to keep water, wine, and other liquids at a 

 dilcance from them, a certain quantity of cloves will, ■ in two 

 days' time, drain a whole hogihead of wine. See Absor- 

 bents in the Materia Ahd'ica. 



Absorbents, or Absorhing Vessels, in Annlomy, 

 denote a minute kind of vefl'els found in animal bodies, 

 which attraft and imbibe any fluid that is brought near 

 their mouths. Thefe veffels are fo minute and tranfparent 

 as not to be difcovered in ordinaiy dilTeftion ; but by great 

 Libour, they have at length been detefted to abound in 

 every tribe of animals. As thefe veflels are tranfparent, 

 their contents are vifible, which circumftance occafioned 

 them to receive the difl^erent denominations of lactcals and 

 lymphatics. The former were fo called, becaufe they im- 

 bibed the chyle, a milky fluid from the bowels ; whilll the 

 latter, containing much lymph, which they had taken up 

 from all the interfticcs of the body, were therefore named 

 lymphatics. 



The lacleal veflels were firfl; noticed at the Alexandnan 

 fchool by Erafiftratus, who obferving that they extended 

 from the region of the liver to the bowels, trroneoufly con- 

 cluded that they were a peculiar fyftcm of veflels, dellined 

 for the nutriment of thofe organs. They were not again 

 particularly noticed till AfcUi, in Italy, in 1622, perceiv- 

 ing that the contents of the inteflines, and thefe veflels were 

 Cniilar, rightly coiijeftured that they ablorbed the fluid 

 which they contained from the bowels. 



Pecqu t, in France, fliortly alter the publication of the 

 difcoveries of Afelli, on opening the large veins near the 

 heart, difcovered the chyle not yet incorporated with the 

 blood, and the veflels by which it was poured into the left 

 fubclavian vein, and which proved to be the principal trunk 

 of the lafteal and lymphatic vefl'els, and was named from its 

 fituation, by Bartholine, the Thoracic Duft. A httle after- 

 wards, in 1 65 1, Rudbec a Swedifh, and Bartholine a 

 Dutch anatomift, difcovered veffels rtfembling the latleals in 

 ftrudlure and office in other parts of the body, and which 

 they named, from their contents, lymphatic veflTels. 



In Haller's time, although great numbers of lymphatic 

 abforbing veffels had been ciilcovered throughout the body, 

 they did not appear to him completely adequate to perform 

 the function of abfoi-ption. They had not then been difco- 

 Ttrtd in birds or fiflies, and therefore that great anato- 

 mifl ftill retained the idea that the veins performed, in part, 

 the important office of abforption. 



The merit of firll demonflrating the abforbing veffels in 

 thefe tribes of animals belongs to Mr. Hewlon, who aililled 

 in the labours of the tirll eminent anatomical fchool in Lon- 

 don, in which anatomy was moft ably taught by Dr. Hunter. 



JVIr. John Hunter undertook, by experiments, to deter- 

 jnine whether the veins aflifted in any degree in the oifice of 

 abfoqi.ion. Having conveyed milk, coloured with indigo or 

 iaffron, or fcented with inutk, iuto the fiuaU intcili;i':« of au 



Vol. I. 



A B S 



afs, after a (hort interval tlie laftca!.? were found full of thefe 

 fluids ; but on o])ening the veins of the inteflines at the 

 fame time, and fufl'ering the blood to feparate iiito fe.-ura 

 and ci-aflamentum, the fenim was neither coloured nor fcented. 

 Wlien irritating fiibllances are imbibed, the abforbing vef- 

 fels always become inflamed, whiMI the veins fuffer no kind 

 of irntation. Of late alfo the abforbing vefl'els have been 

 injected in fuch great abundance, that they appear liilly 

 adequate to perform the office for which they feem fo atl- 

 niirably adapted. Anatomifts at prifent, therefore, are 

 wan-anted in believing that they are the only vcflih en- 

 gaged in performing that very important fur'tlion in the 

 animal trconomy. 



Mr. Cruikfliank publiflicd a fyftcmatic account of thcf* 

 vefl'els, chiefly taken from the preparatlor.r. and obfervationt 

 that were made in the fchool eflabliflied by Dr. Hunter. 



Mafcagni, in Italy, by employing a new artifice in in- 

 jefting thd'e veffels, has been able to exhibit them in a more 

 complete and fatisfaftory manner than any former anatomift. 

 The extremity of a glafs tube, like that of the baromeier, 

 bf^ing melted, is drawn out to any required degree of tenuity, 

 in which Hate it Itill remains per\-ious, or tubular, and af- 

 fords an opportunity of conveying quickfilver into the mi- 

 nuteft vefl'el difccrnible liy the eye. If thefe veflels be th« 

 only ones, which perfoim the office of abfoi-ption, they 

 mufl; exilt in every part of the body. For there is no fjioL 

 on the furfaceof the flcin, from which ointment may not be 

 taken up, nor any internal part, from wh'ch blood, acci- 

 dentally effufed, is not abforbed ; nay, the very matter com- 

 pofing the texture of the body is undergoing continual re- 

 moval and renovation. Thefe vefl'els therefore mufl be fup- 

 pofed to begin by open orilices ver)- genei-ally throughout 

 the body, tliough their commencement can only be de- 

 monftratcd upon the inner furface of the inteflines. They 

 appear to the unaided eyes, in that fituation, fine and 

 pointed tubes ; but by the microfcope, their mouths are dif- 

 cerned to be patulous, and like a cup, which circumflances 

 have been well dtfcribtd bv Leiberkuyn. The beginning 

 abforbents foon join together, and after fome time form mi- 

 nute veffels, capable of being injefted bv anatomifls ; thefe 

 again conjoin, and form larger veffels, wl.itii arc ftill difco- 

 verable with great difficulty. 



In ftrufture and arrangement thefe veffels have great fimi- 

 litude to veins ; they have, in confequence, been named by 

 fome anatomifts the lymphatic veins. I-.ike the veins their 

 fides are thin and tranfparent, though of confilerable 

 ftrength : like the veins, they frequently communicate with 

 each other, or, as it is technically termed, anaftomofe. The 

 advantage derived from thefe communications is obvious ; for 

 by thefe means the diffimilar matters which they take up 

 from various parts, arc mixed together, and blended with 

 the lymph, which thev imbibe from the interllices of the 

 body, and which fers-es as a vehicle for fuch heterogeneou* 

 particles : they alfo prevent accidental preffure made on a 

 few veffels from obftructing the progreis of the abforbed 

 fluids, which are in tliat cafe conveyed forward by collateral 

 channels. Like the veins alfo, thefe veflels, by conjoining, 

 form a tube of fmaller area, than the united arca> of the 

 veffels before their junction. The effeiil of this conilruclion 

 is the fame as in tlie veins, that is, an acceleration in the cur- 

 rent of the Ivmph, in proportion as it comes nearer to the 

 trunks of the abforbing veffels. The diameter of the 

 thoracic duft benrs but a fmall proportion to the united 

 diam.cters of nil the minute abforbents in the body, and 

 v.iien this ducr has been opened, the lymph has flowed frorn 

 it with a force .ind jet like that with which the Mood 

 ilfuc! frgir. 1 ';;rge vein. Like the veins the abforbents are 



1 furnif.ted 



