414 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1730. 



bleeding, to which this perpetual flux of bile, through the wounded gall- 

 bladder, seems to have a great affinity ; and therefore would probably promote the 

 afliiux of blood and secretion of the bile so much and so strongly towards the 

 vessels, glands, and secretory ducts leading to the c)stis, as very much to lessen, 

 or totally to hinder the secretion by the ductus hepaticus into the guts by that 

 channel: and therefore, in this case, the whole of this useful juice seems for 

 this reason to have been totally lost to the animal economy. 



Another objection is, that as the guts and other contents, and even the 

 muscles and integuments of the lower belly, were highly tinged by the bile, it 

 is probable that some of it has got into the cavity of the guts, where it might, 

 by its stimulus, keep up the peristaltic motion, and by the lacteals get into the 

 blood, for the use of the animal economy; as it appears that some of it got 

 into the bladder in that manner, and tinged the urine. 



It is not unlikely that this might happen when the bile came to be very 

 redundant in the cavity ; but in passing through the interstices of the vessels 

 and fibres of the guts, as through a filtre, the grosser, saline and sulphureous 

 particles of it, which are the most pungent and active parts, must have been 

 left behind ; which the muddy thickness, as well as deepness of the colour of 

 the liquor found in the cavity of the abdomen, compared with the transparent 

 clearness of the urine of a much lighter yellow colour, without sediment, 

 seems to prove: and it is not likely that such a small quantity of filtrated 

 bile, as may be supposed to have passed that way, deprived of all its active 

 particles, could either in quantity or quality be sufficient to assist in any func- 

 tion of the animal economy, whether natural, vital or animal: and, in fact, if 

 any passed that way, it appeared plainly insufficient to promote the contraction 

 and peristaltic motion of the guts, which remained preternaturally distended, 

 from the beginning to the time of his death. 



It has been also objected, that an animal which dies starved, dies delirious 

 and feverish, the experiment having been made on cats and dogs: and there- 

 fore this person, who had no fever, nor delirium of any kind, cannot be sup 

 posed to have died starved. — The Dr. will not dispute these facts, especially 

 the experiments on cats and dogs. But supposing the facts, these cases will 

 differ very much from this before us: for an animal starved to death purely for 

 want oi food, has the gall flowing continually into the cavity of the intestines, 

 unmixed and undiluted with chyle, and from thence by the lacteals into the 

 blood ; so that in a few days this acrimonious juice must become more redun- 

 dant there, than any other humour; which joined with the constant attrition 

 of the globules in circulation, must soon render the blood very acrimonious, 

 rancid and alcaline, that is, must reduce the whole to a mass of putrefaction. 



