THE ABSORBENT SYSTEM. 
95 
it is dissolved, and, therefore, there is a constant loss in 
the passage down the canal. In the mouth and oesoph¬ 
agus, the absorption is slight; but much of that which 
has yielded to the gastric juice, with most of the water, is 
greedily absorbed by the capillaries of the stomach, and 
made to join the current of blood which is rushing to the 
liver. Absorption by the capillaries also takes place from 
the skin and lungs. Medicinal or poisonous gases and 
liquids are readily introduced into the system by these 
channels. 
We have seen that the oily part of the food passes un¬ 
changed from the stomach into the small intestine, where, 
acted upon by the pancreatic juice, it is cut up into ex¬ 
tremely minute particles, and that the undigested albumi¬ 
noids and starches are digest¬ 
ed in the intestine. Two 
kinds of absorbents are pres¬ 
ent in the intestine, lacteals 
and blood-capillaries. Both 
the lymphatic and blood sys¬ 
tems send vessels into the 
velvety villi 61 with which the 
intestine is lined. The blood- 
. j i , Fig. 60. —Lacteal System of Mammal: a. 
capillaries lie towards the out- descending aorta, or principal artery ; 
side of the villus and the 
lacteal in the centre. The 
albuminoids and sugars are /, lacteal, or mesenteric, glands, 
chiefly absorbed by the blood-vessels and go to the liver. 
The fats pass on into the lacteals, which receive their 
name from the milky appearance of the chyle. These 
lacteals unite into larger trunks, which lie in the mesen¬ 
tery (or membrane which suspends the intestine from the 
back wall of the abdomen), and these pour their contents 
into one large vessel, the thoracic duct , lying along the 
backbone, and joining the jugular vein in the neck. 
