OE THE ABSORBENTS. 151 



and of the juices of the body ; which juices may be either thrown out 

 of the body as useless, or be such parts as were intended to stimulate 

 the guts, as the bile. 



The thickening change which takes place in the excrements as they 

 pass through the alimentary canal, would appear to arise from rest ; 

 for, when into the colon, the motion of the excrements cannot be so 

 quick as in the small intestines ; and when the parts are in a sound 

 state, we never find anything like thick excrements, even in the ileum, 

 or even like thin excrement ; for there is a very material difference 

 between the contents of the ileum and the contents of the colon : but 

 that this does not arise from any peculiar property in the colon, but 

 from rest, appears from the dissection of Miss Limm ! [Where is this ? 

 (asks "Win. Clift.)] 



Of the Absorbents. 



It would appear from experiments that the absorbents do absorb 

 after all communication is cut off between them and the brain and cir- 

 culation*. This is no more than that contracting or acting power 

 which parts have that are not dependent on the will, which is far 

 more lasting than those powers where the will has any influence. I 

 observed in a dog, whose carotid artery I tied, that the lymphatics 

 were likewise tied, and that by next morning the lymphatics were very 

 turgid with a clear lymph. I collected it in a tea-spoon, and found 

 that it coagulated with heat. It is most likely that every cavity of the 

 body has absorbents, excepting the cavity of the stomach ; for, from all 

 the observations that ever I could make, I never could find any there. 

 I collected some lymph from a lymphatic on the loins of a new-killed 

 dog, and observed that it had a good deal of the coagulable lymph in it, 

 but the serum that was expressed by the coagulation of the lymph did 

 not coagulate by heat. How is this? for the lymph in cavities has 

 none of the coagulable lymph in it. Do the lymphatics communicate 

 with the arteries ? 



The absorbents seem to be capable of taking in some things and not 

 others; or they reject some things and receive others; and, in one 

 state, they can reject, while in another they receive the same thing ; 

 for instance, the small -pox [virus] is not received by the skin, but by an 

 ulcer. The lymphatics would seem to be affected by stimuli, for where 

 there cannot be the least reason to suppose an absorption, they are 

 affected, and the glands also. 



* Vide Book of Experiments on Absorption. [Where is that Book? — W. 

 C'lift.] 



