T 
ABSORBENT. 
spavins are removed. LHxercise is a very power- 
ful stimulus to absorbents; thus it is that swelled 
legs [swellings in the legs] are removed by half 
an hour’s exercise. In the horse, the lymphatics 
are more liable to disease than the lacteals, but 
in man the reverse.” [Lowdon’s Ency. of Agr.] 
Some writers give the name lymphatics to all the 
vessels of the absorbent system; and others dis- 
tribute them into three classes or sub-systems,— 
vessels of the skin whose pores admit moisture 
into the body, vessels which drink up the chyle, 
and vessels which take up any extzavasated fluids, 
and convey them into the circulation. See ar- 
ticles Guanps, ABSorPTION IN ANIMALS, and Lym- 
PHATIC VESSELS. 
ABSORBENT TREATMENT. The use or ad- 
ministration, in veterinary medicine, of drugs for 
internally neutralizing acids or externally ab- 
sorbing moisture. Prepared chalk and similar 
substances are administered for” the purpose of 
|| destroying acids which lodge in the stomach 
| and bowels, and which are originated by weak 
digestion ; and wheat flour, galamine powder, 
Armenian bole, and some other dry and finely 
pulverized substances, are applied, in dustings be- 
tween folds of the skin, in powderings upon the 
surface, and in other methods, for the cure of 
galled skin, wounds from friction, excoriations, 
blisters, diffused bruises, sores between the toes 
of dogs, foul in the foot of black cattle, foot-rot 
in sheep, canker in the foot of the horse, and 
some varieties of the disease called mange. The 
absorbent powders are occasionally used also as 
styptics to arrest hemorrhage. 
ABSORPTION IN ANIMALS. The function 
of absorbent vessels, by virtue of which they take 
up substances from without or within the body. 
Two great divisions have been made of this func- 
tion. I. External absorption, or the absorption 
of composition, which obtains, from without the 
organs, the materials intended for their composi- 
tion, and which takes place not only at the ex- 
ternal surface of the body, but also by that of the 
mucous membranes of the digestive and respira- 
tory passages. Hence, again, the division of ex- 
ternal absorption into, Ist, cutaneous, intestinal, 
or digestive ; and, 2d, pulmonary or respiratory. 
The great agents of external absorption are the 
veins and chyliferous vessels.—II. Internal ab- 
sorption, or the absorption of decomposition, which 
takes up from the organs the materials that have 
to be replaced from the exhalants, and in which 
the great agents are probably the lymphatics. 
Internal absorption is subdivided into, 1st, mo- 
lecular, nutritive, or organic absorption, which 
takes up from each organ the materials that con- 
stitute it, so that the decomposition is always zn 
equilibrio with the deposition ; 2d, the absorption 
of recrementitial secreted fluids, sage as the fluid 
of the serous and synovial membranes, which are 
constantly exhaling, but having no external out- 
let, would augment indefinitely if absorption did 
not remove them as deposited; 3d, the absorp- 
ABSORPTION. 
tion of a part of the excrementitial secreted fluids | 
as they pass over the excretory passages. 
ABSORPTION IN CHEMISTRY. A term va- 
riously employed to denote the property and ac- 
tion of certain solids and liquids to take gases 
into their own mass without materially altering 
their principal and essential characters. All 
solids, as soon as they acquire the requisite de- 
gree of porosity or division, exhibit the faculty of 
absorbing gases, but none so much so as char- 
coal, Saussure found that, in 24 to 36 hours, one 
volume of boxwood charcoal absorbed—of am- 
monia, 90 volumes; of sulphuric acid, 65; of car- 
bonic acid, 35; of oxygen, 9 25; of hydrogen, 1°75. 
The rapidity and quantity of the absorption de- 
pend on the dryness of the charcoal, its degree 
of porosity, the pressure of the gas to be absorbed, 
the temperature, the nature of the gas itself 
(the most easily liquefied being the most exten- 
sively absorbed), and its purity. Metals in astate 
of extensively fine division exhibit absorbent 
powers not inferior to charcoal. The absorption 
of gases and vapours by liquids depends on cir- | 
cumstances similar to absorption by solids. A || 
liquid will of course absorb more gas, the less of | 
the same gas it already contains. One volume 
of alcohol absorbed 2°60 of gas; one of ether, 
2:17; of linseed oil 1°56; of water, 1:06. The spe- 
cific gravity of liquids exercises much influence 
on the absorption, for all liquids lighter than 
water surpass it in absorbent power, while those 
heavier fall below it: yet an exact law, in this | 
case, cannot be laid down. The volume of gas 
absorbed by a liquid is the same under any pres- 
sure, the temperature being constant; and the 
weight of gas is directly proportional to the | 
pressure on the gas. Suppose we have 100 cubic 
centimeters of water, with a sufficient quantity 
of carbonic acid enclosed in a vessel at a tem- | 
perature of 64°4° F., connected with a forcing- | 
pump: after some time the water will have taken 
up 106 cubic centimeters of the gas, or 196°6 
grammes. By doubling the pressure, the same bulk 
will be absorbed, but the weight will be 393:2 
grammes; by trebling the pressure, the weight 
will be 589°8 grammes. On this action depends 
the preparation of artificial mineral waters. 
The reverse takes place when the pressure is 
diminished. Thus, if a liquid be charged at or- 
dinary atmospheric pressure, and this pressure 
be lowered, a portion of gas escapes until the 
same volume remains in the liquid as it is capa- 
ble of absorbing ; or if it had been charged under 
high pressure, the excess escapes when the pres- 
sure is removed,—a phenomenon constantly oc- 
curring with beers, mineral waters, and other 
effervescing drinks. The development of heat, 
by the absorption of a gas, is a curious circum- 
stance. It is generally greater in proportion to 
the amount and rapidity of absorption. The 
phenomena of chemical absorption are referred 
either to capillary or chemical attraction; but 
the subject is yet enveloped in obscurity. 
