LETTERS. 



LETTER VI. 



To John Daniel Horst, principal Physician of Hesse-Darmstadt^ 



EXCELLENT SIR, I am much pleased to find, that in spite 

 of the long time that has passed, and the distance that sepa- 

 rates us, you have not yet lost me from your memory, and I 

 could wish that it lay in my power to answer all your in- 

 quiries. But, indeed, my age does not permit me to have this 

 pleasure, for I am not only far stricken in years, but am afflicted 

 with more and more indifferent health. With regard to the 

 opinions of Riolanus, and his decision as to the circulation of 

 the blood, it is very obvious that he makes vast throes in the 

 production of vast trifles; nor do I see that he has as yet 

 satisfied a single individual with his figments. Slegel wrote 

 well and modestly, and, had the fates allowed, would undoubt- 

 edly have answered his arguments and reproaches also. But 

 Slegel as I learn, and grieve to learn, died some months ago. 

 As to what you ask of me, in reference to the so-called lacteal 

 veins and thoracic ducts, I reply, that it requires good eyes, 

 and a mind free from other anxieties, to come to any definite 

 conclusion in regard to these extremely minute vessels ; to me, 

 however, as I have just said, neither of these requisites is 

 given. About two years ago, when asked my opinion on the 

 same subject, I replied at length, and to the effect that it was 

 not sufficiently determined whether it was chyle or one of the 

 thicker constituents of milk, destined speedily to pass into fat, 

 which flowed in these white vessels ; and further that the vessels 

 themselves are wanting in several animals, namely, birds and 

 fishes, though it seems most probable that these creatures are 

 nourished upon the same principles as quadrupeds ; nor can any 

 sufficient reason be rendered why in the embryo all nutriment, 

 carried by the umbilical vein, should pass through the liver, 

 but that this should not happen when the foetus is freed from 

 the prison of the womb, and made independent. Besides, the 

 thoracic duct itself, and the orifice by which it communicates 

 with the subclavian vein, appear too small and narrow to suffice 



