76 THREE KINDS OF SECRETION. [BOOK I 



being invisible, he gets worse used by his inexorable 

 master for his inability to perform his usual work, 

 and he soon falls a victim to the lash, the spur, 

 and the bit. At the joints, this fluid is considered 

 to be an oil (synovia) ; at the heart it is confessedly 

 nothing but water ; whilst it partakes of a mucous, 

 unctuous, or slimy nature at some other parts of the 

 body. This is the case with the membranes of the 

 throat and gullet ; on those of the nostrils, the heat 

 of the horse's breath converts it into a " viscid 

 mucus : " when the secreted watery particles come 

 off by sweating, it assumes a white or milky ap- 

 pearance, after a little time appearing thicker and 

 more slimy as the sweating continues, and the watery 

 particles becoming less and less, its fluidity is also 

 lessened. See Membranes, sect. 26. 



21. In all animals, the secretion of this watery 

 fluid is carried on by the membranes, which are 

 thin films placed between the various organs, over 

 the bones and among the fleshy parts. These not 

 only secrete, but sustain the fluid in its place, for 

 the purposes above mentioned, and being of vari- 

 ous texture or fineness, the fluid that is so secreted 

 and held to its purpose by each, partakes more or 

 less of water, is more or less slimy, or consists 

 more or less of an oily nature, according to the 

 use it may be designed for. Each kind of mem- 

 brane and its proper secretion, has received a 

 learned name, — the first being called serous, the 

 second mucous, the third fibrous ; but, having re- 

 solved to abandon learned words, whenever the thing 



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