146 ' I'HILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNN0 1757. 



in a morbid state, found tinged with a mixture of the red globules or crassa- 

 mentum of the blood. Upon this foundation '2 different theories have been 

 raised, concerning the connection of the lymphatics with the arteries. 



Of these, we shall first consider that of the famous professor Boerhaave. He 

 observed, that every artery of the body is greater, in its diameter, than any of 

 its branches; and this observation being found true, as far as our eye and the 

 microscope can inform us, he inferred, by analogy, that it held good even through 

 the most minute subdivisions of the arterial system. But, says he, proportion- 

 able to the diameter of the canal is the size of the particles moving through it: 

 therefore, if an ultimate capillary artery, admitting only one red globule at once 

 to pass through it, send off lateral branches, these branches will be capable of 

 receiving such particles only as are smaller than a red globule. But the particles 

 next in magnitude below the red globules are the yellow serous ones; and the 

 lateral vessel, thus receiving them, is a serous artery, and the trunk of a 2d 

 order of vessels. In like manner, this trunk, being continued on through many 

 lessening branches, will at last grow so minute, as to admit only 1 serous glo- 

 bule: its lateral branches, therefore, will receive only such particles as are smaller 

 than the serous ones : but these are the particles of the lymph ; and this lateral 

 branch is a lymphatic artery, and the trunk of a 3d order of vessels. Thus, in 

 the red arteries are contained all the circulated fluids of the body; in the serous 

 arteries, all except the red blood ; in the lymphatics, all except the red blood and 



Presbyterian sect, not being in a situation to afford the money necessary to procure a liberal educa- 

 tion for his son, who shewed a taste for intellectual pursuits, some assistance was offered and 

 received from the dissenters' fund, for defraying the expences of his further education ; and he was 

 sent to Edinburgh, to qualify himself for the office of a dissenting minister. He had not been long 

 at this university before he determined to relinquish the study oT divinity for that of physic; re- 

 paying that contribution (says Dr. Johnson) which being received for a different purpose, he justly 

 thought it dishonourable to retain. In 1741 he went to Leyden, and 3 years after took his degree of 

 M.D. there. On his return from Holland, he first settled at Northampton, but not getting into 

 much practice, he removed from thence to Hampstead, and afterwards to London. 



At London he was known as a poet, but had still (as we are also informed by Johnson) to make his 

 way as a physician ; and would perhaps have been reduced to great exigencies, but that Mr. Dyson, 

 with an ardour of friendship that has not many examples, allowed him s^300 per annum. Thus 

 supported, he advanced gradually in medical reputation. He was appointed physician to St. Thomas's 

 hospital, became f. r. s. was admitted by mandamus to the degree of m. d. in the university of 

 Cambridge, and was afterwards elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. He had fur- 

 ther the honour of being appointed physician to the queen. The last of these honours he did not 

 long enjoy, being cut off by a putrid fever in the summer of 1770, when he was in the 4-9th year 

 of his age. 



The medical writings of Dr. Akenside consist of various papers, published in the Medical Trans- 

 actions of the College of Physicians, of an Harveian oration, and of his Dissertatio de Dysenteria, 

 the elegant latinityof which has entitled him to the same height (as an able critic ius remarked) 

 among the scholars, as he possessed before, in consequence of his poetical writings, among the wits. 

 Of his poems, that on the Pleasures of Imagination, the merits and defects of which have been 

 fully pointed out by Johnson^ is the most celebrated. 



