122 ULCERATED LUNGS AND LIVER. [BOOK I. 



is carried off is most inscrutable ; but, upon opening 

 the dead subject, we have often noticed spots which 

 had been corroded and gangrenous, where the cure 

 had been effected in this spontaneous manner. As 

 for ulcers upon the liver, also arising from the vis- 

 cidity of the blood, if they take place near its thin 

 extremity, the common natural process is, that that 

 part of the liver attaches itself to the gut, and the 

 offensive matter will then slough off into the intes- 

 tines, and come away by stool : a partial cure is 

 the consequence ; not produced by medicine acting 

 vpon the part, as is very clear, but by a common 

 natural effort, aided by a more vigorous and healthy 

 state of the blood than when the disease was en- 

 gendered. To assist the circulation in regaining 

 this state is clearly the duty of the medical at- 

 tendant, and is the only manner in which he can 

 be of any service to the animal in restoring it to 

 health. 



40. In the lungs, then, does the blood receive 

 from the air its invigorating principle, and no 

 sooner does this take place, than it drops into 

 another short blood-vessel (a vein), and, by it, is 

 conveyed again to the heart : not to the same small 

 chamber on the right side, of course, but to a similar 

 one on the left side. Here the contractions go 

 on as before mentioned, only that the blood differs 

 in quality ; this being now properly fitted to pro- 

 mote the purposes of life, and for imparting the 

 vital principle, occasions the heart to assume that 



twisted shape we see in some animals, while in 



o 



