Experiments on Fluids, &c, 41 



from the tborax going to join it, was woundcJ, from which 

 chvle flowed out in considerable quantity during the whole 

 time of the experiment: a short time before the dot; was 

 killed, some of it was collected, hut on testing it with potasli 

 no rhubarb was detected in it. 



The urine was found impregnated with rhubarb, as was 

 also the bile from the gall bladder; but both in a less de- 

 gree than in the last experiment. The lacteal vessels and 

 mesenteric glands were much disiended with chvle; and on 

 cutting into the glands chyle flowed out in considerable 

 quantity. Some of this was collected and tested with pot- 

 ash, but showed no evidence of rhubarb being contained 

 in it. The thoracic duct was much distended; it was 

 traced to the ligature, and was found to be completely se- 

 cured. 



Lymphatic vessels from the right side of the posterior 

 mediastinum were seen extending towards the ligature that 

 had been tied on that side; they were nearly empty ; and 

 the trunk formed by the junction of these with the lym- 

 phatic vessels from the vigh» axilla, and from the right side 

 of the neck, was seen distinctly included in the ligature. 



While Mr. Brodie was tracing the thoracic duct, Mr. 

 William Brande was making an infusion of the spleen, and 

 showed me a section of it, in which the cells were larger, 

 and more distinct, than I had ever seen them in a dnjr. 

 There was a slighl tinge ofrhubarb in the infusion from the 

 spleen. A similar infusion was made of the liver ; but the 

 quantity of blood contained in it being nnith greater than 

 in the spleen, the appearance was not sufficiently distinct 

 to decide whether it contained rhubarb or not. These ex- 

 periments appear completely to establish the fact, that the 

 rhubarb did not pass through the thoracic duct, and there- 

 fore must have got into the circulation of the blood by some 

 other channel. They likewise completely overturn the 

 opinion I had adopted, of the spleen being the medium by 

 which the rhubarb had been conveyed, and show that the 

 spleen answers some other purposes in the animal oeco- 

 nomy. 



The rhubarb found in the spleen docs not arrive there 

 before it enters the circulation; it is thcrctore most probably 

 afterwards deposited in the cells in the form of a spcretion. 

 That the rhubarb goes into the circulation is proved by mv 

 former experiments, in which it was detected m the splenic. 

 vein. The prussiate of potash is hardly to be discovered in 

 the blood of a living animal, since the proportion which 

 ptrikes a blue colour on the addition of solution of iron, is 



greater 



