4^2 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTrONS, [aNNOJ741. 



opiates, and such like remedies, were strictly used, all proved ineffectual, till 

 all this extraneous substance was come away. 



These fine capillamenta seem to be the tegument of an animal, which had 

 got into the primae vise, and passed the venae lacteae, and, by circulation, 

 passed also the glandulae renales. For it is more probable, that they were ex- 

 traneous, than that they were generated in the urinary passages, in an equivo- 

 cal manner. 



The greatest objection, that offered to him was, that it was judged abso- 

 lutely necessary, that the venae lacteae should be smaller than the finest artery 

 in the body, that nothing might enter, which might stop circulation of the 

 blood. Also, that the mouths of the lacteals, which are open into the cavity 

 of the intestines, from whence they receive their chyle, are so small as not to 

 be seen by the best microscope in dead bodies. 



To obviate these objections, may not the mouths of the lacteals be percep- 

 tible in living bodies, when dilated, distended, and turgid with chyle ? And 

 may not these capillamenta, when relaxed with any humidity, become very 

 flexible, pliable, and susceptible of being contorted, and of assuming any 

 figure ;* and, when thoroughly relaxed, disseminated and floating in a fluid, 

 enter the lacteals ; and consequently may pass through the convolution of small 

 arteries, whereof the glands and secretory vessels are formed ; for a gland is 

 said to be nothing else but a convolution of small arteries. 



N. B. This gentleman has kept a strict regimen of diet for many years, being 

 subject to frequent fits of the gout, an incontinency of urine, &c. In the 

 morning early, a draught of cow's milk, statim ab ubere ; which often does not 

 pass a colatorium, whereby some of the downy hair about the udder might get 

 along with the milk into the primae viae. 



Concerning a large Quantity of Matter or Water contained in Cystises or 

 Bags adhering to the Peritonaum, and not communicating with the Cavity of 

 the Abdomen. By Walter Graham, M.D. Mansfield. N" 460, p. 708. 



In the middle of Feb. 1735, Jane Dawson, of Mansfield, in Nottingham- 

 shire, an unmarried woman, aged 30, received a violent strain by lifting a tub 

 of water, and immediately complained of great pain in her left side. In March 

 following, she found a lump, or little round swelling, in that side of lier belly ; 



• The capillamenta, whilst in the urinal, and till the urine was decanted, appeared only like a 

 gross turbid liquor, the filaments being so diffused. — Orig. 



Dr. Mortimer remarks, in a note, that he doubted of these substances being real hairs; he ima- 

 gined they were rather slender grumous concretions, formed only in the kidneys by being squeezed 

 out of the excretory ducts into the pelvis. — Orig. 



