ic vessel, or venous
radicle, to remove it as soon as it shall have finished its particular
office.

395. The action of the lymphatic vessels counterbalances those of
nutrition, and thus the form and size of every part of the body is
preserved. When their action exceeds that of the nutrient vessels, the
body emaciates; when it is deficient, plethora is the result. In
youth, they are less active than the nutrient vessels, and the limbs
are plump; but in later periods of life, we find these actions
reversed, and the body diminishes in size. It is not unfrequent that
wens, and other tumors of considerable size, disappear, and even the
entire bone of a limb has been removed from the same general cause.
The effused fluids of bruises are also removed by absorption.

_Observations._ 1st. When little or no food is taken into the stomach,
life is supported by the lymphatic vessels and veins imbibing the fat
and reconveying it into the blood vessels. It is the removal of this
secretion which causes the emaciation of the face and extremities of a
person recovering from a fever. In consumption, the extreme
attenuation of the limbs is caused by the absorption, not only of the
fat, but also of the muscles and more solid parts of the system.

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394. What is interstitial absorption? Flow are the new atoms of matter
deposited? How removed? 395. What vessels do the lymphatics
counterbalance in action? What is the result when their action exceeds
that of the nutrient vessels? When it is less? Mention some instances
of active absorption. What causes the emaciated limbs of a person
recovering from fever? The extreme attenuation in consumption?

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2d. Animals which live in a half torpid state during the winter,
derive their nourishment from the same source. In other words, we may
say the starving animal lives for a time upon itself, eating up, by
internal absorption, such parts of the body as can be spared under
urgent necessity, to feed those organs and continue those functions
that are absolutely essential to life.

396. RECREMENTITIAL absorption is the removal of those fluids from the
system, which are secreted upon surfaces that have no external outlet.
These fluids are various, as the fat, the marrow, the synovia of
joints, serous fluids, and the humors of the eye. Were it not for this
variety of absorption, dropsy would generally exist in the cavities of
the brain, chest, and