THE MODERN HORSE DOCTOR. 25 



fed on the rotten recrements of cities. In short, lacteal absorp- 

 tion gives us the modus operandi of many medicines on the 

 systems of man and animals. 



Observations on taste and feeling were first made on brutes, 

 and afterwards verified on man. The lachrymal ducts were 

 first discovered in the eye of a sheep, and the excretory duct of 

 the pancreas was discovered in a turkey. 



Bernard and Spallanzani discovered the antiseptic properties 

 of the gastric fluid in the following manuer : they obtained some 

 of that fluid from a stomach, mixed it with an equal quantity of 

 putrid blood, and then allowed them to stand together for eighteen 

 hours ; the mixture was then injected into the jugular vein of a 

 dog. The mixture produced no inconvenience ; and being aware, 

 before making the experiment, that any putrid matter, on being 

 injected into the blood of a living animal, was sure and certain 

 death, the conclusion they arrived at was, that the gastric fluid was 

 endowed with the power of neutralizing the deleterious action of 

 the putrid ferment, thus depriving the morbid matter of its poison- 

 ous properties ; and this conclusion has been frequently verified. 

 This discovery was also of great value in more ways than one ; 

 but it enabled us to explain why animal matters in a state of 

 putrefaction, when introduced into the stomach, do not always 

 prove destructive. The reader, probably, knows that the dog, 

 wolf, and many other carnivorous animals are fond of putrid flesh, 

 and that some men, even, have a craving for game in a partial 

 state of decomposition, and they all seem to digest such filth 

 with very little inconvenience. 



Another equally important experiment was made by Magen- 

 die on a dog. He injected fifteen grains of blood into the jugular 

 vein of the animal. The effect was, great disturbance of the 

 functions of the brain and circulation, and the animal died in 

 twelve hours. 



Another experiment was performed. The same physician 

 introduced two drachms of putrid water, in which fish had been 

 kept, just underneath the skin, and the animal died almost im- 

 mediately. Such experiments speak to us in a warning voice ; 

 they teach us to be careful how we trifle with putrid matter. 

 We may introduce it into the stomach, provided that organ be in 

 8 



