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smoke, fitted for Elysium, &c. Suppose I were to assert this, no 

 one could prove that it was not so: the most that they could say is 

 that there is no proof of the existence of the souls of elephants in 

 the bowels. Just so with the assertion about the fat : I will main- 

 tain that there are the souls of elephants in the bowels, with just 

 as correct a reasoning as that which has been cited to prove that 

 the use of bile is to form fat. Quitting these puerile pretensions 

 to ingenuity, let us return to our indications of an analysis. 



14. It has been stated in the preceding pages of this article, in 

 conformity with the prevailing opinion, that the principal end of the 

 function of the liver is to secrete bile : that it does this there can be 

 no doubt; and that the result has a reference to certain purposes in 

 the animal economy, or at least that it produces certain effects, is 

 equally clear. The object of investigation is to shew what these 

 effects are, and the strict mode of analysis, by which this object may 

 be attained, has been imperfectly pointed out. Having said thus 

 much concerning the uses or the effects of bile, it remains that we 

 should inquire a little into the history of its own formation. 



15. The structure of the liver has been minutely examined by 

 anatomists, and is well known to every student, so far as it has been 

 described. The anatomists inform us that bile is produced in 

 minute tubes, expressed as the acini, pori biliarii, &c. or secreting 

 structure. The processes, or manner of secretion in general, will 

 hereafter be more particularly considered under that title. 



16. As the secretion of bile has never been found, to take place 

 in the dead subject, and as this secretion, unless prevented by disease 

 or malformation, is found regularly to take place when life is present; 

 and as the only variety in tubes must consist of their comparative 

 size or shape, and as no specimen can be supposed to exist in one 

 place, which has, among myriads of tubes existing in every struc- 

 ture, no parallel elsewhere; so it is to be inferred from these data, 

 1st, that the organic spirit, or the living principle belonging to the 

 secreting structure of the liver, is necessary to its product; and, 2nd, 

 that as the same secretion does not take place elsewhere, although a 

 similitude in mere structure and material is assumed to obtain, so 

 the spirit, which is said to be essential to the secretion of bile, is a 

 peculiar one, or a modification of that general one which is identified 

 in all seats by the exhibition of common properties. 



17. The peculiarity of the spirit in this seat is for the present 

 rested upon the above grounds, which are confessedly assumed. The 

 questions which might arise upon it have been in part discussed 

 in the chapter, " General Relations of Spiritual, Chymical, and 

 Mechanical Agents," and what remains to be said upon it will belong 

 to the article on Disease. For the present, the settlement of the 

 difficulties involved in the proposition is unimportant, and would 

 therefore be misplaced here. 



18. Whatever the nature of the spirit which resides in the 

 secerning tubes of the liver might be, whether peculiar or common, 

 the dependencies of the spiritual formations of one part upou the 



