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Show viii INTRODUCTION. of the body and viscera also, it will do more than those figures which Haller complains of. Since the former edition, chance has thrown in my way a body, in which TIIE the thoracic duct or trunk of the absorbent system was nearly as large as ANATOMY the aorta, and of which my assistant, Mr. \Vilson, was able to show the right lower extremity Covered with the ahsorbcnts he had injected with quicksilver; I have of course added some new engravings from these and other subjects. 01" THE ABSORBING VESSELS OF THE HUMAN BODY. CH A P. I. 0f Ansonp'rioN g‘c'llt'mlly. Eflflfi‘ia‘tgbuw A Ansoar'riox is a term derived from the Latin language, and signifies, li- terally, drinking up: Thus Pliny says of Cleopatra's eontrivance to swallow £80,000 at a draught, " Regina meretrix detractum unionem mersit ct liquefactum tl/Jsm‘lmit." And lIoraee uses it exactly in the same sense in the lines " ut decies solidum absorlwref, Aeeto, diluit insignem baccam."-- The Romans however employed this term to various other properties of in- animate matter, living vegetables, and animals, as we do now. \Ve say that inanimate fluid matter absorbs,- ior example, oil of vitriol absorbs moisture from the atmosphere, and in the space of a year becomes from this circumstance alone seven times heavier than at first.-\Ve say that a sand stone absorbs water poured on it.-\Vc explain the absorption by the oil of vitriol on the principle of chemical attraction, and the absorption of the sand stone is commonly ascribed to its pornsi/y and con- :t‘qucnt ailrmrlitm of gravitation. Many have supposed that vegetables anal animals absorbed on the same principle. Boyle speaks of permit/Ir tHr‘iHlIZ/HHH; wonders that this property escaped my Lord Bacon, and thinks that had he turned his mind this "av, he would have written an excellent C I'd/elegy, |