As on the one hand the blood vessels ramify almost naked on the mucous surfaces, and as on the other these vessels are always the origin of the exhalants, it is evident, that these have but a short course to run to arrive at their surfaces; they are rather pores than distinct vessels. Hence why no doubt the blood has so great a tendency to escape by the exhalants; why consequently hemorrhages without rupture are so frequent in the mucous system; why this affection can be classed in the diseases of this system, &c. &c. No other, by the arrangement of the arteries, offers to the exhalants so short a course between their origin and termination. Often even, as I have said, we make the blood of these vessels ooze in the dead body through their exhalants. _Absorbents._ The absorption of the mucous membranes is evidently proved, 1st, by those of chyle and of drinks on the intestinal surfaces, of the venereal virus upon the glans penis and the canal of the urethra, of the variolous when the gums are rubbed with it, of the serous portion of the bile, the urine and the semen, when they remain in their respective reservoirs. 2d. When, in the paralysis of the fleshy fibres that terminate the rectum, substances are accumulated at the extremity of this intestine, these substances often become hard, an effect probably of an absorption of the soft parts. 3d. There have been various cases in which the urine has been almost wholly absorbed by the mucous surface of the bladder, where there have been insurmountable obstacles in the urethra. 4th. If we respire, by means of a tube, the air of a large vessel filled with the exhalations of turpentine, so that these vapours can only act upon the mucous surface of the bronchia, the urine has the peculiar odour that always arises from the use of this substance, the exhalations from which have been introduced into the blood by the means of absorption, &c.