ABSORBENTS, or ABSORBING Vessels, in Anatomy,
a name given promiscuously to the lacteal vessels,
lymphatics, and inhalant arteries, a minute kind of
vessels found in animal bodies, which imbibe fluids
that come in contact with them. On account of
their minuteness and transparency, they escape obser-
vation in ordinary dissection. They have, however,
been detected in every tribe of animals, and, in the ani-
mals which have been examined, in every part of the
body. Those which open into the stomach and intes-
tines, and convey the chyle, which is a milky fluid,
from these organs to the blood, have received the name
of lacteals, or lacteal vessels; and those which open
on the external surface, and the surface of all the cav-
ities of the body, have been denominated lymphatics,
from the lymph or colourless fluid which they contain.
See ANATOMY.