S4 



Defer! ption of 

 the process of 

 nutrition. 



Formation of 

 fibrina. 



MR. BRANDE's view OF THE 



coagulated flieep's blood into dephlogifticated air (o\igen gas); 

 the biackeft parts affiimed a florid red colour, and that more 

 readily than tliey would have done if common air only had 

 been made ufe of: Whereas the brighteft red blood became 

 prefenlly black in any kind of air unfit for refpiration, as in 

 fixed air, &fc. ; and after having become black in phlogifti- 

 cated air (azot), it regained its red colour on being brought 

 into contadl with common air, the fame blood becoming al- 

 ternately black and fcarlet, by being transferred from phlo- 

 gifticated into dephlogifticated air, and vice verja." 



Thefe then may be regarded as the experiments which gave 

 origin to all fubfequent enquiries. 



The food which is taken into the body is converted into 

 chyle and excrement * ; the former of which is abforbed by a 

 fet of veifels termed ladleals, which convey their fluid into the 

 thoracic dud. The term lymph has been applied to that fluid 

 which lubricates the furfaces of all the circumfcribed cavities 

 of the body : This fluid is abforbed by a fet of veflels termed 

 lymphatics, which of courfe originate in every part of the 

 body; they likewife terminate in the thoracic dud, which 

 therefore is the great refervoir of the abforbent fyftem ; it re- 

 ceives the chyle and lymph, and conveys them to the blood ; 

 they are here decompofed, and converted into new fubltances 

 neceflary to the fupport of the body. Now the coagulable 

 lymph, or fibrina, appears to be the mofl efl^ential part of the 

 blood, for it is employed to fupply the wafte of the mufcles, 

 <5'c. and Dr. Thomfon has accounted for its formation in the 

 following mannnerf: " It follows," fays he, ** from the ex- 

 periments of Fourcroy, that fibrina contains more azot and 

 lefs hydrogen and carbon than any of the ingredients of the 

 blood, and confequently alfo than any of the ingredients of 

 the chyle. In what manner the chyle, or a part of it, is con- 

 verted into fibrina, it is impoflfible to fay ; We are not fuffi- 



* The food, on being received into the ftomach, is converted into 

 a pulpy fubftance termed chyme. This alteration is etFefled by a 

 peculiar fluid called gaftric juice, which is fecreted by the internal 

 coats of the ftomach. The chyme thus formed is propelled into the 

 duodenum, where it meets with the bile, which converts it into a 

 Huid much refembling milk, termed chyle, and into excrement. 



t Thomfon's Chemiftry, 2d Edit, Vol, IV. page 725. 



cienti/ 



