116 Malpighi and the Physiology [lect. 



He thus concludes : 



" Among various questions which arise out of the discoveries 

 "which have been described, two stand out prominent. By 

 "what mechanism is the bile separated in the glandular acini 

 u of the liver, and what is the use of bile in the economy ? 

 " The illustrious Pecquet has made many deductions from the 

 "principles of mechanics concerning the former ; since, however, 

 " the structure of the acinus is so minute that it cannot be 

 " laid bare by even the very best microscope, we can only 

 " have recourse to hypotheses and to the working of similar 

 " mechanisms in attempting to explain this." And such a 

 labour he does not propose to take up. 



As to the use of the bile he can only say "that it is 

 " probable that after the food has been triturated (in the 

 "stomach) juices of a different nature are poured upon it from 

 " the glands of the liver and from the pancreas, for a purpose 

 "not unlike that which appears in the cooking of food when 

 "out of sweet, sour, and salt things mixed together, a new 

 "composition and a new taste are developed. Let the wide 

 " industry of others carry matters further, I am contented to 

 "have described the simple and rude structure of the liver." 



The description itself, however, was neither simple nor 

 rude. It brought clear light to what before was wholly dark 

 or, at least, most obscure ; and where Malpighi left the matter, 

 there it remained, with little change, until the present century. 



In his tract on the kidney he went far beyond Bellini. He 

 shewed that in man at least the kidney really consisted of 

 several kidneys, and that the several constituent kidneys might 

 be distinguished as masses of Bellini's tubules arranged in the 

 form of pyramids, the pyramids since known as the pyramids 

 of Malpighi. He shewed how in each pyramid Bellini's tubules 

 ended in orifices at the summit of the papilla which formed 

 the apex of the pyramid, and further how in the cortex of the 

 kidney the tubules were not straight as Bellini had described 

 them, but curiously and irregularly twisted. Lastly he pointed 

 out how many at least of these tubules began as inflated 

 swellings or capsules, " round like the eggs of fishes," and how 

 these capsules contained a knot of blood vessels, and so hung 



