LYMPHATIC ABSORBENTS. 695 
called white-blooded, and are considered as the lowest order of 
the scale of creation. 
In both instances, that is, in the entire system of white-blooded 
animals, as also in the white or transparent parts of such as are 
termed red-blooded , as there are transparent or colourless vessels 
adapted for the conveyance of nutritive fluids to and from these 
parts, and as it is well understood that in each, during the living 
state, there is absorption and deposition continually going on, 
therefore, although the Hunters might have carried their theo¬ 
ries too far in considering the white or lymphatic veins of red- 
blooded animals as a sole and separate system of absorbent ves¬ 
sels, yet, in justice to them, it must be confessed, that they were 
the first in this or any other country who taught that these ves¬ 
sels posessed the faculty of absorbing from serous surfaces as well 
as other parts of the body ; for, prior to this time, these lympha¬ 
tics were considered as only a system of serous veins, and as 
having no share in the function of absorption whatever, and the 
physiologists of those days believed that the real veins were the 
sole absorbents of the body. 
How the Hunters and their followers could have been led into 
such an error, in considering that the red veins had no share in ab¬ 
sorption, and that the whole of the absorptions of the body were 
carried on by the lymphatics, I cannot possibly comprehend ; and 
more particularly, when they were so well aware that these red 
veins took their origin by open mouths, and, consequently, must 
absorb from the cells of the spleen, corpora cavernosa, penis, the 
maternal portion of the placenta, 8cc. Here are several parts 
from which they well knew that they took their origin, and from 
which they must absorb ; and yet, in opposition to these Jacts, 
they grounded their theory on the following positions : — 
First, that mercury, when applied to the surface of the skin, 
was found to become absorbed ; and that, consequently, this ab¬ 
sorption must have taken place by the lymphatics, although they 
at the same time must have been fully aware that no one had ever 
discovered that the lymphatic vessels arose by open mouths from 
those parts.” This is a position which I cannot grant them, but 
must give it in favour of absorption by t he extreme radicles of the 
real veins, because I can prove, by minute injections, that these 
red veins take their origin by open mouths from the external sur¬ 
face of the skin, immediately under the cuticle, or the external co¬ 
vering of the cutis, or true skin, and which has never been proved 
to be the case with the lymphatics, at least in the warm or higher 
orders of animals. The idea, therefore, of cuticular absorption 
by the lymphatics must fall to the ground. 
