C. The superior venæ cava, or trunk vein, which pours the blood returned from the upper part of the system into the heart. There is a similar large vessel which meets this one and brings back blood from the lower part of the body, and they both pour the blood into the right side of the heart.
D E. The branches of the venous system which bring back the blood from the arms.
F F. The great aorta, the blood vessel which conveys arterial blood from the heart, and gives off branches that supply every part of the body.
G. Another large vein which returns the blood from the muscles of the chest, &c.
H H. The thoracic duct, which receives the newly dissolved food from the small absorbents, that collect it from the intestines. It conveys this nutrition (called chyle) upward along the back, until it reaches where the duct turns into the junction of two veins, and pours its contents into the veins bringing blood back to the heart. The nutrition, therefore, is at this moment mixed with the venous blood, and is sent to the lungs to be oxygenised.
"But now hath God set the members in the body, every one as it pleased him."—1 Corinthians xii.
885. How is the nutrition taken away from the bilious residue?
The muscular threads (or hands, as we figuratively call them) continue to push forward the digested matter through a long tube, called the alimentary canal, or bowels. This canal is some thirty feet in length, and is folded in various layers across the abdomen, and tied to the edge of a sort of apron, which is gathered up and fastened to the back-bone. All along this alimentary canal those muscular hands are pushing the digested mass along. But upon the coat or surface of the canal there are millions of little vessels called lacteals, which look out for the minute globules of milk as they pass, and absorb them, which means that they pick them up, and carry them away. There is an immense number of these little vessels, all busily at work picking up food for the system.