112 Malpighi and the Physiology [lect. 



" to the other humour (the pure blood). Whence it comes 

 "about that those humours suit themselves to those parts 

 "with which they have the greatest likeness and affinity. 

 " And that is the beginning of the secretion of them. The 

 " particles for instance which have the greatest affinity to the 

 "bile humour attract this to themselves, and then pass it on 

 "to the first beginnings of the biliary duct. In like manner 

 " those particles whose business lies especially with the pure 

 "blood attract this to themselves, and then carry it to the 

 "capillary roots of the vena cava!' 



Hence when during his stay at Messina Malpighi was 

 studying the structure of the viscera, the results of which 

 study he did not however publish until his return to Bologna 

 in 1666, he had before him the striking new discoveries of 

 which I have just spoken, namely the discovery of the pan- 

 creatic duct in 1642 by Wirsung, of the submaxillary duct in 

 1652-6 by Wharton, of the parotid and other ducts in 1661 by 

 Stensen, and of the structure of the kidney in 1662 by Bellini. 

 He was also acquainted with the distinction between con- 

 glomerate and conglobate glands made by Sylvius, as well as 

 with the researches of Glisson on the liver and of Stensen on 

 glands in general. 



What use did he make of these, and how much further did 

 he carry us? 



Malpighi's book on the viscera contains an account of the 

 study of four organs, the spleen, the kidney, the liver, and the 

 cortex of the brain. 



We may say at once that in his tract on the cerebral cortex 

 he shewed that he was not infallible; carried too far by the 

 enthusiasm for glandular structures which the works just 

 mentioned had excited, he maintained that the cortex of the 

 brain was also glandular; he described the superficial grey 

 matter as glands hanging on to the strands of the white fibres 

 like the fruit of the date palm. 



In his tract on the liver he modestly says that Glisson had 

 left him little to say, and yet the little which he did say was of 

 prime importance. He for the first time shewed that the liver 

 was constructed after the fashion of a conglomerate secreting 



