94 PHYSIOLOGY OF THE CIRCULATION. 



which Venturi found to be possessed by a rapid stream 

 of water, might possibly also be in some measure 

 exercised by the innumerable streams of blood which 

 incessantly traverse the different structures of the 

 animal body. If any analogous force did reside in 

 the latter, then the total absorbing power thus ob- 

 tained, must, from the number and rapidity of those 

 currents, as seen under the microscope, be very con- 

 siderable ; and this force had certainly not yet 

 entered into the consideration of physiologists. I 

 repeated, with success, Venturi's chief experiment, 

 viz. that of causing the ascent of a stagnant liquid 

 in the long arm of a syphon, the short arm of which 

 communicated with the interior of a pipe traversed 

 by a rapid stream. And I also found the same 

 ascent to occur, though much more slowly, when a 

 membrane was tied over the orifice of the short arm, 

 so that all communication between the interior of 

 the syphon and the stream could only take place 

 through the minute pores of the intervening mem- 

 brane. 



I had proceeded thus far in the inquiry, when 

 circumstances prevented me from pursuing it further 

 at that moment; but in May last, an abstract 

 of my views on this subject, and of the grounds 

 on which they rested, appeared in the "Medical 

 Gazette." 



Having since then performed a great number of 

 experiments on various points connected with this 

 process, I shall now proceed - 



1st. to give a detailed account of some experi- 

 ments, in which the substitution of yielding and 



