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 observation in ordinary dissection. They have, however, been detected in every tribe of animals, and, in the animals which have been examined, in every part of the body.