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Show Tim the Ancients knew something of five Property of absorbing in Human Bodies. weeks, without the least mark oftransudation; nor did the swelling subside till the cuticle was separated, till it burst, or was punctured. surface of the body, as well as an exhalation ofsimilar matter. He asserted the same thing of all the internal surfaces and cavities: we find this doctrine summed up in the following words: " Xmas; «haul seal or nothing Md {EWEV ("may sf ailments; in; summer xazi EHT‘YI'VOOII 8/1." 14 AsI do not admit ofthe transudation ofwatery fluids during life, neither do I allow of the penetration, pervading, or transudation of such fluids as, on opening the cavities ofthe body, emit vapour, and are sometimes odorous and fetid. The muscles covering the abdomen become sooner green, sooner putrid, than other muscles in the body; and this, with reason, has been sus» pccted to arise from their lying immediately over the intestines, then commonly filled with putrid fluids, or fetid and volatile vapour; both of which may transude after death, and become the cause of this so much more accele- rated putrefaction ofthese muscles. units." . uren- 4.15th But nothing like this takes place in the living body; no fetid vapour of the intestines can thus ever enter the blood-vessels, or pervade the other parts of the body, while life remains: the highly fetid fluid of a lumber abscess is neither sensible to the patient nor the by-standers, till it is opened; the odour of the semen is its own peculiar odour, and not, as Haller imagines, from the fetid air of the rec- tum pervading the tr‘Wulre scminalcs: nor can I admit, that the peculiar 15 " mi Maya." " The soft parts ofthe body attract matter to themselves both from within and from without; a proof that the whole body exhalcs and inhales." One might suppose that Hippocrates here only meant, by exhaling and inhaling, expiration and inspiration from the lungs: but he says, E'Aw 1-5 Iran/.11, which can never apply to the lungs; and Galen, as we shall see af- terwards, understands the word armour, here used by Hippocrates, as sig- nifyingT absorption. Passages in Hippocrates, to be hereafter quoted, will also put this matter beyond all doubt. Galen himself speaks most decisively of the absorption in the human body; he, indeed, conceives it to be by an attraction; but he uses the same word when he describes the veins taking up fluids. His words are: {( AU/O 510-1)! 0'20"}; lE/‘J'fl Te fJ'fi/ 7;; "Pg; 70 KEVOG'LLEl/Gll SJXOAQU9lCL T0 J5 (IV/.UU/TYH" 770l977lTC; flavour and toughness of bull's flesh, wholly warning in that ofthe calf or bullock, arises from the odour of the semen pervading the whole body. There is not the least resemblance between the two odours, nor can one " 'yt'y'deLEDCV. £75,7w; {Lita 3/929 5:; 704; print; 5 tin/la srspw; ale/'5 aid-n93; mm 7-7,; tzpzxksiz; ‘ smmrirtzt )tl/ef/U.)‘ That is, possibly conceive any affinity between odorous particles in a confined fluid, of a vacuum being formed, and the other from affinity in quality; for, and rigidity and tenacity in muscular fibres. Transudation, then, does not take place in living bodies; and transudation, and even the commence- ment of absorption, are perfectly distinct. in one way does the bellows attract air; and in another way is steel attracted by the magnet." The Arabian physi ians appear also to have been acquainted with this property of absorbing in the human body; for we find them frequently ap- plying medicines to the surface of the skin, which were to produce their effects as expectorants on the lungs, as cmctics on the stomach, as purga- tives on the intestines, or diuretics on the kidneys. It may here be urged, CHAP. II. The Anciintfs Stu/n to bare known something (if the Properly of absorbing in Hanan Bodies. Triar the human body inhaled, was the doctrine both of Hippocrates and Galen. Hippocrates taught, that an inhalation of vapour and fluid took place on the surface " There are two kinds of attraction; one which arises in consequence that this is no proof of their knowing any thing of absorption. The Chi- nese physicians, Kempher informs us, frequently apply remedies to one part of the. surface of the body, which are intended to produce their (if; fccts on a distant one; but this depends '1 a different principle from ab- sorption. They have conceived established connections between some parts of the body and certain others; and when they wish to produce an effect |