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To the Editor.
—I welcome the new department of the Archives entitled INTERNAL MILIEU. You point out correctly that physicians "... must also be adept in the use of language to communicate their knowledge effectively...." With this in mind, I must say that if it is correct that Claude Bernard pointed out that blood and lymph normally bathe the cells of an organism, he was not communicating his knowledge correctly. Lymph, yes. Blood, no. To me—and to Webster as well, to be bathed indicates a more intimate immersion than can be achieved with the interposition of capillary endothelium. In my conception of the internal milieu, cells are bathed with blood only when there is a rupture of vessels.