* 
NATURAL 
and some of them were of the size 
of an orange. 
After the inje&tion had become 
cold, I cut into the mesentery, in 
order to remove these balls of wax ; 
when I found that they were con- 
tained in bags, in which I also ob- 
served a slimy and bloody-coloured 
fluid. On the inner surface of these 
bags a greater number of small arte- 
ries und veins terminated ; from the 
mouths of which the injeétion had 
poured into their cavities. ‘There 
were seven of these bags in that 
piece of mesentery which I had to 
examine ; but I am not able to de- 
termine what number belonged to 
the animal; for I do not know 
whether the portion of mesentery 
that I possessed was complete. 
Having removed the injeétion from 
these bags, I observed on the in- 
side of them a soft whitish sub- 
stance, apparently containing a 
plexus of lacteal vessels. This sub- 
stance entered the bags at that 
part of them which was.nearest to 
the intestines, and went out at the 
part next to the spine. I now 
poured some quicksilver into those 
la¢teals which appeared to lead to 
this sott substance ; the quicksilver 
soon entered the vessels which 
were contained in it, and thus its 
nature was ascertained, A number 
of latteals having entered one of 
these bags were observed to com. 
municate with each other, then 
again to separate, and form other 
vessels, which went out of the bag. 
It was some time before the quick- 
silver passed through the plexus of 
vessels contained in the first bag, 
but after having pervaded it, it 
passed on to a second bag, in which 
was concealed a similar plexus of 
Jatteals. The quicksilver ‘perme. 
HISTORY. [382 
ated these last vessels with much 
greater facility than it did the 
former, and quickly ran out of the 
large laéteals which were divided 
at the origin of the mesentery. 
Besides those absorbents which 
passed through the bags in the 
manner described, there were great 
numbers of others, which termi. 
nated by open orifices in every part 
of them. When quicksilver was 
poured into any of the laeals,y 
which were found near the sides 
of the bags, it immediately ran in 
a stream into their cavities. f 
introduced about a dozen bristles, 
through as many la¢teals, into dif. 
ferent parts of two of these bags. 
These were doubtless few, in.com- 
parison to the whole number whick 
terminated in them, but as the me- 
sentery was fat, and the vessels 
were small, more could not easily 
be passed, 
I afterwards stuffed two of the 
bags with horse-hair, dried them, 
and preserved them as an anatomi- 
cal preparation. In this state great 
numbers of arteries and veins, but 
chiefly of the former vessels, are 
seen terminating on their inside, 
in the same indistinét manner as 
the foramina Thebesii appeat when 
the cavities of the heart are laid 
open; the bristles also render vi- 
sible the termination of a certain 
number of lacteals. { examined the 
sides of these bags, which were 
moderately thick and firm; but I 
did not see any thing which, from 
its appearance, I could call a mus. 
cular structure, 
From the circumstances that have 
been related, it appears, that in the 
whale there ate two ways by 
“which the chyle can pass from the 
intestines into the thoracic! dud; 
one 
