70 



course of the absorbent vessels from the intestiim 

 canal. This passage, which could not be alto- 

 gether unexpected by those who were acquainted 

 with the minute investigations, which were for- 

 merly instituted to discover a direct way from 

 the stomach to the kidneys, HOME has endea- 

 voured to support, by .experiments, which, in 

 case they have been correctly observed and 

 confirmed by other experiments, do certainly 

 prove the point most completely. He found, 

 for instance, that when a person takes a dilute 

 infusion of rhubarb, the colouring matter of 

 the rhubarb shows itself about twenty minutes 

 after, in the urine, but soon disappears again, 

 unxl does not return till after several hours, when, 

 the remainder of the infusion of rhubarb has 

 passed the thoracic duct. When an animal is 

 made to take infusion of rhubarb, and is killed 

 shortly after, the infusion is discoverable in the 

 blood of the spleen, but not, for instance, in 

 that of the liver, &c. Tie found, that the spleen 

 contained a number of small cellules filled with 

 % colourless fluid during the period of diges- 

 tion; but which, at other times, were collapsed 

 and almost imperceptible. The same observa- 

 tions, relative to the structure of the spleen, 

 also been made by other respectable 



