ABSORPTION, in the animal economy, is the
function of the absorbent vessels, or that power by
which they take up and propel substances. This power
has been ascribed to the operation of different cau-
ses, according to the theories which physiologists have
proposed. Some attribute it to capillary attraction,
others to the pressure of the atmosphere, and others to
Absorption, an ambiguous or unknown cause, which they denominate faſſion; for this laſt is nothing eſſe than the elaſtic power of one part of the air reſtoring the equilibrium, which has been deſtroyed by the removal or reſaction of another part.
Absorptions of the Earth, a term uſed by Kircher and others for the ſinking in of large tracts of land by means of ſubterranean commotions, and many other accidents.
Pliny tells us, that in his time the mountain Cymbotus, with the town of Curites, which ſtood on its ſide, were wholly abſorbed into the earth, ſo that not the leaſt trace of either remained; and he records the like fate of the city of Tantalus in Magnæſia, and after it of the mountain Syphilus, both thus abſorbed by a violent opening of the earth. Galanis and Gamales, towns once famous in Phœnicia, are recorded to have met the ſame fate; and the vaſt promontory, called Phegium, in Ethiopia, after a violent earthquake in the night-time, was not to be ſeen in the morning, the whole having diſappeared, and the earth cloſed over it. Theſe and many other hiſtories, atteſted by the authors of greateſt credit among the ancients, abundantly prove the fact in the earlier ages; and there have not been wanting too many inſtances of modern date. (Kircher's Mund. Subter. p. 77.)
Picus, a lofty mountain in one of the Molucca iſles, which was ſeen at a great diſtance, and ſerved as a land-mark to ſailors, was entirely deſtroyed by an earthquake; and its place is now occupied by a lake, the ſhores of which correſpond exactly to the baſe of the mountain. In 1556, a ſimilar accident happened in China. A whole province of the mountainous part of the country, with all the inhabitants, ſunk in a moment, and was totally ſwallowed up: The ſpace which was formerly land is alſo covered with an extenſive lake of water. And, during the earthquakes which prevailed in the kingdom of Chili, in the year 1646, ſeveral whole mountains of the Andes ſunk and diſappeared.