1 COMPENDIUM OF THE VETERlNAUY ART. 



from going on, vitality is destroyed. The 

 function of the kings is of equal importance in 

 the animal economy, and cannot be stopped 

 even for a short time, without suspending or 

 totally destroying animation. Ancient phj'sio- 

 logists had a very imperfect idea of the manner 

 in which these organs so essentially contributed 

 to the support of life : the moderns, however, 

 have been more successful in their researches ; 

 they have discovered that the blood derives from 

 the air, which is taken into the lungs, the most 

 important properties, without which it would be 

 a useless vapid mass, totally inadequate to the 

 purposes for which it was designed. If we 

 examine the blood in the left 'ventricle of the 

 heart, and in the arteries, it will be found of 

 a bright scarlet colour, and replete with those 

 properties which render it capable of nourishing 

 the body, and stimulating the whole system to 

 action : in the veins it becomes of a much 

 darker colour; and when it arrives at the right 

 ventricle is nearly black, and destitute of those 

 enliveninpc qualities which it possessed when in 

 the left ventricle : had not the Deity then pro- 

 vided some means for its renovation, it would 

 have been quite unfit for a second circulation, 

 and the duration of life must have been short 



