analyses, which may be considered as so many secretions from the com- 

 mon fluid. 



If we confine ourselves in our view of the subject, and limit our atten- 

 tion to man, the principal and almost the sole object of our study, we 

 shall see that the different secretions that may take place in him, are 

 extremely numerous and varied, and that a change in the condition of 

 one of his organs, is sufficient to enable it to secrete a new fluid. Hence 

 inflammation in any gland, is sufficient to alter the secretion of the organ 

 that is affected. A portion of adipose tissue, on being affected with in- 

 flammation, shall secrete, instead of fat, a whitish fluid known by the 

 name of pus. The pituitary membrane, when inflamed, furnishes a mu- 

 cas more fluid and more abundant, and which, by degrees, returns to 

 its natural state, in proportion as the coryza goes off; the serous mem- 

 branes, as the pleura and the peritoneum, will allow a greater quantity 

 of serum of a more albuminous quality, sometimes even coagulable 

 lymph, to exude 5 at other times, inflammation causes an adhesion of 

 their contiguous surfaces, and as the inflammatory state varies in intensity, 

 the accidential secretion will likewise vary as to its qualities ; thus, the 

 phlegmonous inflammation which should furnish, on terminating in sup- 

 puration, a whitish fluid, thick, consistent, and almost without smell, will 

 give out, if the process is not sufficiently active, a serous pu ^colourless, 

 and without consistence, &c. For the same reason, the blood-vessels 

 of the uterus pour out in some women, a dark coloured blood while in 

 others, they give out a mere serosity, very slightly, if at all tinged with 

 blood*. 



The menstrual discharge, in women, is the product of a real secretion of 

 the arterial capilliaries of the uterus, in the same manner as those vessels 

 in the pituitary membrane, the membrane which lines the bronchiae, the sto- 

 mach, the intestines, the bladder, Sec. pour out blood abundantly, or allow 

 its transudation, when irritation is determined to those parts; in hemor- 

 rhage from the nose, in bleeding from the lungs, or from the stomach, 

 when the vessels are not ruptured by external violence. Apoplexy itself, 

 whether sanguineous or serous, may in several instances, be ranked among 

 those secretory evacuations, the quality of which varies, according to the 

 energy of the capillaries which produce it. On opening dead bodies, one 

 frequently meets with a collection of blood in the ventricles of the brain, 

 in persons who have died from apoplexy, yet the most careful examination 

 does not enable one to detect the slightest laceration or rupture in the 

 veins, or in the arteries within the skullf. 



* To these examples of morbid secretions, others majs be added, even more remark- 

 able, as the vims in rabies canina, in syphilis, the small pox, &c. By some animals the 

 power is possessed of secreting naturally the most virulent poisons. Of this descrip- 

 tion are many of the reptiles, but especially the viper, the rattle-snake, &c. There are 

 others again, which are distinguished by secretions peculiar to themselves. For in- 

 stance, the ant pours out a fluid of a specific nature, the cuttle fish a dark liquor, and 

 the skunk a fluid so offensive as to become a means of protection, repelling by its stench 

 many an assailant. Chapman. 



f That the menstrual discharge results from a secretory action of the uterus, is a doc- 

 trine which we early adopted, and have taught in our lectures for the last ten years. 

 Every other hypothesis on the subject is totally irreconcileable with facts, and repug- 

 nant to the laws of the animal economy. The crude speculations of former times, re- 

 specting this operation, may, indeed, be considered as discarded. Does any one, for in- 

 tance, whose knowledge has kept pace with the improvements of physiology, now en- 



