OF THE THYMUS GLAND. 259 



SECT. 32. The fluid found in the lymphatic vessels, coming 

 from the thymus, differing so much in colour (cxxv) from what 

 is contained in the lymphatic vessels of the other parts of the 

 body, was an inviting circumstance to examine the properties 

 of it, with intent to determine upon what cause this remarkable 

 difference in colour depended. 



EXPERIMENT III. 



SECT. 33. A drop or two of the fluid found in the lymphatic 

 vessels coming from the thymus gland, being received upon a 

 thin piece of glass, and examined in a microscope, with a lens 

 of of an inch focus, it appeared opake, and like a drop of 

 milk. But on diluting it with a few drops of the serum of 

 human blood, the same appearance was exhibited as was ob- 

 served on examining the fluid found in the lymphatic glands, 

 a great number of small, white, solid particles, exactly resem- 

 bling in size and shape the central particles in the vesicles of 

 the blood, or such as are found in the fluid of the lymphatic 

 glands. 



EXPERIMENT IV. 



SECT. 34. A few drops of the same kind of fluid as in the 

 former experiment were diluted with a small quantity of a 

 solution of Glauber's salt in water (as mentioned in Experi- 

 ments on the Blood), and on viewing this with the microscope, 

 the same particles were more distinctly seen than in the pre- 

 ceding experiment, on account of the fluid being more di- 

 luted (cxxvi). 



SECT. 35. Particles of this shape being found in large 

 quantities in the lymphatic vessels coming immediately from 

 the thymus, through the substance of which lymphatic vessels 



(cxxv.) See page 252 and Note cxxi. 



(cxxvi.) The globules of the juice of the lymphatic glands and of 

 the thymus have the same microscopical and chemical characters: 

 see Note cxxn, pp. 253-4. The experiments in the text are most impor- 

 tant. They should be carefully repeated with some modifications and the 

 improved aids that science now affords. No experimental inquiry con- 

 cerning the office of the thymus can be satisfactory without exact 

 researches as to the nature of the matter carried by those vessels which, 

 on such high authority, have been considered as the excretory ducts of 

 the gland. See Notes cxxvu and CXLIV. 



