CHAP.IT.] pulmonary arteries WHAT? 119 



acknowledged to be the plainest spoken among the 

 moderns ; indeed, were he any thing else than a good 

 common-sense writer, we should not have deemed 

 him worthy of this remark. 



39. The Blood, as before said, rushes out of the 

 large chamber on the right side of the heart into 

 an artery that soon divides into two branches ; 

 whereof one enters each lobe of the lungs, and 

 there disperses, through certain cells, the blood 

 with which it is constantly supplied. Here lies the 

 secret ! At this point it is, that health or disease 

 (at least a pre-disposition to one or the other) is im- 

 bibed and engendered in the blood. The lungs 

 having received the thick discoloured blood from 

 the right side of the heart, and being the receptacles 

 of the air we all breathe, do, by means of that air, 

 bestow upon the blood afresh the principles of life, 

 and health, and vigour. The cells, or tubes, through 

 which the blood passes in the lungs, termed pul- 

 monary, are eight in, number, being double the 

 quantity given to man, and show, from that circum- 

 stance, the immense circulation of which they are 

 the agents. A cruel and almost incurable malady, 

 that attends most horses at this part of the organs 

 of respiration, with many and variable symptoms, 

 was alluded to higher up, at sect. 36 ; and is what 

 we term from those vessels, pulmonary consumption. 

 But then, it is clear, that the air which is so brought 

 to effect those beneficial changes upon the blood in 

 the lungs, must be fit for the purpose / — that is to 

 say, it should be vital or atmospheric air, uncon- 



