THE MODERN HORSE DOCTOR. 327 



by several anatomists, on the score of the mucous linings of 

 canals extending throughout these cavities, — and that, if the pul- 

 monary membrane could not anatomically be proved to do so, it 

 was on account of its extreme tenuity. In proof, however, that 

 his opinion was well founded, M. Magendie experimented with 

 a virulent poison called woorara, which was known to take no 

 effect on mucous surfaces, but to pass through the stomach and 

 intestines unaltered in its properties, although, when placed in 

 contact with a vascular surface, the smallest particle of it occa- 

 sions instant death. With this he smeared the interior of the 

 bronchial tubes without producing any effect ; though when he 

 reduced the poison to very fine powder, and contrived the grad- 

 ual introduction of it into the air cells, where it underwent solu- 

 tion, then its poisond*us effects became manifest, furnishing con- 

 firmatory evidence of M. Magendie's theory of their anatomy. 

 A proof, as has appeared all along, that respiration is the princi- 

 pal and the most common channel through which miasms enter 

 the blood, is, that animal matters, in a state of putrefaction, in- 

 troduced into the stomach, do not prove destructive. Some car- 

 nivora — the dog and the wolf — are fond of putrid flesh. 

 Certain men have the same craving. There are some who live 

 on human flesh ; and we know, by many, game that is called 

 high is preferred to that which is fresh. 



" If human industry has for a long time made us acquainted 

 with the means of neutralizing the effects of putrefaction, the 

 stomach has ever possessed this property in an eminent degree ; 

 and this, doubtless, is the explanation of our being able to eat 

 viands in a putrid condition. M. Magendie has made this the 

 subject of some very curious experiments. Fifteen grains of 

 blood in a state of putrefaction, giving off ammonia and sulphu- 

 retted hydrogen, was injected into the jugular vein of a dog. The 

 effect was, great disturbance of all the functions of the brain, the 

 circulation, and locomotion ; and the animal died in twelve hours. 

 Here death could not be owing either to the ammonia or the sul- 

 phuretted hydrogen contained in so small a quantity of blood. 

 A second experiment is, introducing underneath the skin of a 

 dog a couple of drachms of putrid water, in which stale fish had 

 been. The simple absorption of this proved sufficient to bring 



