OF DRINKS. 657 



chyliferous vessels were full of a white fluid. Mr. Hunter subsequently 

 repeated the experiment with odorous and coloured substances, but 

 without being able to detect them in the mesenteric veins. It may be 

 remarked, also, that Musgrave, 1 Lister, 2 Blumenbach, 3 Seiler and Fici- 

 nus assert, 4 that they have detected substances, which had been thrown 

 into the intestines of animals, in the chyle of the thoracic duct. The 

 experiments of Hunter, however, are those, on which the supporters 

 of this view of the question principally rely. 



Physiologists, who believe in the absorption of liquids by the mesen- 

 teric veins, adduce similar arguments and much more numerous experi- 

 ments. They affirm, that the mesenteric veins, like the chyliferous 

 vessels, form constituent portions of the villi; that if the chyliferous 

 system is manifestly an absorbent apparatus, the same may be said of 

 the venous system; that if the chyle has appeared more fluid after 

 much drink has been taken, the blood of the mesenteric veins was seen 

 by Boerhaave to be more fluid under like circumstances; and, lastly, 

 against the experiments of Hunter, numerous others have been cited, 

 showing clearly, that liquids, injected into the intestine, have been 

 found in the mesenteric veins, whilst they could not be detected in the 

 chyliferous vessels. 



To the first experiment of Hunter it has been objected; that in his 

 time the art of performing physiological experiments was imperfect; 

 and that, in order to deduce useful inferences from it, we ought to 

 know, whether the animal was fasting, or digestion was going on at 

 the time it was opened; that the lymphatics ought to have been ex- 

 amined at the commencement of the experiment, to see whether they 

 were full of chyle, or empty; as well as the milk, to notice whether it 

 had experienced any change during its stay in the intestine; and lastly, 

 that the reasons ought to have been assigned for the belief, that the 

 lacteals were filled with milk at the end of the experiment, and not 

 with chyle. Moreover, the experiment has been repeated several 

 times by MM. Flandrin and Magendie, 5 careful and accurate ob- 

 servers, yet, in no case, was the milk found in the chyliferous vessels. 

 The first experiment of Hunter cannot, therefore, be looked upon as 

 satisfactory. Some source of fallacy must have occurred, otherwise 

 a repetition of the experiment should have been attended with like re- 

 sults. We shall find, hereafter, that in another experiment, by that 

 distinguished individual, a source of illusion existed, of which he was 

 not unaware, that was sufficient to account for the appearance he 

 noticed. 



The experiments of Hunter with odorous and coloured substances 

 have been repeated by many physiologists, and found even less con- 

 clusive than that with the milk. M. Flandrin, who was professor in the 

 Veterinary School at Alfort, in France, thought that he could detect, 

 in horses, an herbaceous odor of the blood of the mesenteric veins, but 

 not of the chyle. He gave a horse a mixture of half a pound of honey, 

 and the same quantity of asafcetida; and, whilst the smell of the latter 



1 Philosoph. Transact, for 1701, p. 996. 2 Philosoph. Transact., 1701, p. SIP. 



3 Institut. Physiol , 422. * Journal Complement, xviii. 327. 



5 Precis, &c., edit, citat., ii. 201. 



VOL. i. 42 



