Home on Comparative Anatomy. 137 



will be found in these volumes, particularly respecting the discovery 

 of its lymphatics, and the branches of the ras breve in which the 

 author considers them to terminate ; his inquiries, too, respecting the 

 structure and uses of the spleen, are new and elaborate, as well as 

 the account of the intestinal canal. Our limits prevent us from 

 entering at length into these curious discussions, for the details of 

 which wc must refer our readers to the work itself. Among them 

 ,wc were particularly struck with the proofs of the length of the in- 

 testines being proportionate to the difficulty of acquiring food and 

 witii those of the accumulation of fat in the lower bowels. 



In the beginning of the third volume we find an entirely new 

 analysis of the blood, founded chiefly upon Mr. Bauer's microscopi- 

 cal observations, from which it appears that the blood consists of red 

 globules, from which the colouring matter, under certain circum- 

 stances, is detached ; a smaller set of globules, which our author 

 calls lymph globules, and an clastic transparent substance, soluble in 

 water. Carbonic acid is also shewn to exist in the blood, and to be 

 separable under certain circumstances during the act of coagulation. 

 This latter circumstance, as connected with the vascularity of 

 coagula, is one of the most important physiological discoveries of the 

 present century. 



The brain, the structure of which in the present day is a very 

 favourite subject of investigation, has engaged no small share of 

 Sir Everard's attention, and he has some new and very important 

 remarks respecting it. In the first place, he adduces evidence in 

 favour of its existing in a very different state and appearance in the 

 living body, to that which its exhibits after death ; in the former case, 

 it has a gelatinous texture, and in the latter, appears to have undergone 

 a species of coagulation. Upon this topic, also, we find in our 

 author's work some novel and refined microscopical observations ; 

 We must admit that these investigations are very important; indeed the 

 mechanical structure of the different parts of the body, though followed 

 up with much perseverance by some of the older physiologists, has 

 not of late received that attention which it merits ; and we feel much 

 indebted to Sir Everard Home for the inquiries which he and Mr. 

 Bauer have instituted in this department of anatomy. But, however 

 ingenious or* plausible the investigations to which we allude may 

 be, they will require much future observation, to confirm their 

 accuracy, and to sanction the theories and views which our author 

 has founded upon them. 



But, secondly, there will be found in the volumes before us, the 

 commencement of an inquiry into the functions of different parts 

 of the brain, deduced from the effects of injuries upon them; this 

 is, perhaps, the only satisfactory mode of arriving at legitimate con- 

 clusions in this abstruse department of physiology ; and it is highly 

 creditable to Sir Everard to have commenced a work which wc most 

 strongly advise should be followed up and extended as opening a 



