283 



earths are compounds of a similar nature ; and in some experiments 

 upon both barytes and strontian, inflammable matter was produced 

 at the negative surface, and burned with a red flame. This matter 

 Mr. Davy has much reason to believe was the basis of the earth em- 

 ployed. Moreover, although these earths have the strongest rela- 

 tion to the alkalies, there is also a further chain of resemblances 

 through lime, magnesia, glucine, alumine, and silex ; each of which, 

 there is some reason to imagine, may yield new elements when sub- 

 jected to analysis by electric attraction and repulsion. Nor, indeed, 

 are our hopes or expectations confined to the decomposition of earthy 

 substances ; as there is equal reason to suppose that the three acids 

 which have hitherto resisted decomposition, by the usual means of 

 chemical analysis, may nevertheless yield the oxygen which they 

 have been presumed to contain when subjected to the more intense 

 action of electro-chemical affinity. 



On the Structure and Uses of the Spleen. By Everard Home, Esq. 

 F.R.S. Read November 26, 1807. [PUl. Trans. 1808, p. 45.] 



Mr. Home, in the course of his late investigation of the functions 

 of the stomach, having observed that the pyloric and cardiac portions 

 of that cavity were separated in many animals by a permanent divi- 

 sion, and in most by at least a temporary muscular contraction, 

 during the process of digestion ; and having also found that the food 

 in the pyloric portion has in general nearly the same consistence, 

 was led to consider by what means the quantity of fluid frequently 

 taken at meals could be absorbed from the cardiac portion ; and he 

 imagined the spleen, from its contiguity to the stomach, to be the 

 most natural channel for that purpose. 



To ascertain whether liquids do really pass from the stomach by 

 any other channel than the pylorus, that passage was secured by a 

 ligature in a living dog, and five ounces of fluid coloured with indigo 

 were injected into the stomach. At the end of half an hour, two 

 ounces were brought up by vomiting ; and the dog being killed, one 

 ounce was found remaining in the stomach ; so that two ounces had 

 escaped. The spleen was turgid : and upon making a transverse 

 section of it, the cut surface presented an appearance of molecules 

 or vesicles of a white colour, surrounded by the small ramifications 

 of the arteries and plexuses of small veins. 



In Mr. Home's next experiment, he endeavoured to detect the 

 course of the fluid from the stomach of a dog, by employing a decoc- 

 tion of madder ; but though the urine appeared to be somewhat 

 tinged with the madder, no such colour could be discerned in the 

 spleen. 



At the suggestion of Mr. William Brande, he next substituted 

 tincture of rhubarb, the presence of which might be made very evi- 

 dent by the addition of an alkali, which occasions it to assume a 

 brownish red colour. 



After having learned, by various trials, by what time and within 

 what period the effect of rhubarb might be perceived in the urine of 



