698 
ON THE LACTEAL AND 
mechanical one, and that he laboured for twenty years before he 
arrived at this idea, no one having ever dreamed of it before*. 
Now, how Magendie can ridicule the idea that the mode of 
absorption is not a vital phenomenon , and also contend that there 
is not the least difference between the mode of absorption in the 
various tissues of the body, either in the living or in the dead 
state , I cannot possibly comprehend; when, at the same time, 
this physiologist is under the necessity of admitting that the lac¬ 
teal absorbents take up with judgment one substance, and at the 
same time lefuse another. He says that u extreme repugnance 
to confess our ignorance, and a tendency to admit 
contrived to fill up the vacuities in science, are intellectual phe¬ 
nomena as remarkable as they are injurious to the progress of 
knowledge. It w r as not known how absorption was performed : 
instead of confessing as much as one which might have proved a 
stimulus to new researches, some person thought proper to as¬ 
sert that the living tissues cannot admit of absorption as after 
death; that there are absorbing orifices which take up with judg¬ 
ment certain substances and ref use others. This little story 
pleased many physiologists : they repeated it; believedJirmlij in 
it ; and, from that time forth, none knew that the mechanism of 
absorption was still unknown, and, consequently, none ever 
thought of making it the object of research/’ 
But let us return to the experiment: Magendie informs us, 
that the poisoning did not take place until after the ligature was 
removed from the vein, and the current of the circulation was 
again established. I suppose that he means to say, that the 
effects of the poison were not capable of destroying life, and 
that, in removing the ligature, death from the absorption of the 
poison took place in six minutes. 
Now my idear, in this instance, is, that the lacteal vessels 
really did absorb a portion of this poison, but that the absorption 
was so slow, in comparison with that of the large mesenteric 
vein, as not to be of sufficient effect as to immediately destroy 
the life of the animal. For it is a well known fact, that if a 
drachm of hydrocyanic acid be introduced by a small piece of 
sponge into the cellular membrane of the extremity of a large 
ass, bp making an incission through the skin, and if a ligature 
be applied, of a moderate degree of tightness, around the extre¬ 
mity, above the part where the opening is made, no poisoning 
whatever will take place, but absorption will gradually go on, 
and which is evinced by the animal becoming more dull and 
stupid than usual; and which, after a short time, will gradually 
* Magendie Phy. p. 350. 
