VOL. LIX.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 66' 



portion of mankind than at present may be permitted to use oil with their food, 

 from whom it is now withheld on account of its price. 



Great quantities of olive oil are sent from Europe to America. New England 

 alone, Mr. Brownrigg says, annually consumes 20,000 gallons. The quantities 

 used in his majesty's other dominions in America must be prodigious. The oil 

 from ground pease, of which any quantity desired may be raised, may and would 

 supply this consumption of olive oil. It would likewise bear exportation to 

 any of those places where the oil of olives is usually carried; and thereby 

 become a valuable article of commerce. After the oil has been expressed from 

 the ground pease, they are yet excellent food for swine. 



LIII. A Catalogue of the Fifty Plants from Chelsea Garden, presented to the 

 Royal Society by the Company of Apothecaries, for the Year 17 68, pursuant 

 to the Direction of Sir Hans Shane, Bart. By fVm. Hudson, F. R. S. 

 p. 384. 

 This is the 47th presentation of this kind, completing to the number of 2350 



different plants. 



Llf^. A Description of the Lymphatics of the Urethra and Neck of the 

 Bladder. By Henry IVatson, Surgeon to the fVestminster Hospital, and 

 F. R. S. p. 392. 



The valvular lymphatics, as a system of vessels, sui generis, are allowed to 

 have a very considerable office in the animal economy ; but an office, subordinate 

 to that of the blood-vessels: at least they have been supposed by many of the 

 physiologists, not of so much consequence, in preserving the health and life of 

 the animal. If we .consider, that an obstructed thoracic duct, which is in fact 

 but a large lymphatic, will destroy life as effectually as a ligature made upon the 

 aorta itself; we must conclude the lymphatics to be vessels of much greater 

 importance than some have imagined: nearly of as much consequence, in 

 supporting and carrying on the animal functions, as the arteries and veins them- 

 selves: for if an obstruction of the aorta, or great artery, can produce a very 

 quick, or sudden, death; an obstructed thoracic duct will as certainly lead to a 

 tedious and lingering one. The case of the obstructed duct, though not indeed 

 often seen, yet is every now and then to be met with. It is the one cause of a 

 marasmus not known, or not attended to: generally owing to an enlargement 

 of the lymphatic glands that lie near to, and in contact with the duct: generally 

 too attended with obstructions in the more external conglobate glands; therefore 

 always to be suspected, where we have these appearances, accompanied with a 

 gradual wasting of the solids. In children and young subjects we meet with 

 proofs of this disease; a disease, which never could have been learnt, but from 

 the dissection of morbid bodies. 



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