374 STRUCTURE AND USES OF THE SPLEE>f. 



Brown ; still less, that oxigen is that principle, an hypo- 

 thesis I believe first broached by Girtanncr- Much indeed 

 must be done, before we can ventu-re to establish any theory 

 on so abstruse a subject, as that of vitality still remains: a 

 subject on which it is not of so much importance to multi> 

 ply facts, as to describe those that present themselves with 

 accuracy, and with attention to every concomitant circum, 

 stance even of the minutest kind. C. 



XIII. 



On the Structure and Uses of the Spleen. B;y Ei 

 Home, Esq. F.R.S.* 



Communica- IN bringing forward a fact of so much importance, as a 



tion between communication between the cardiac portion of the stomach, 



the stomach *^ 



and circulation and the circulation of the blood, through the medium of 



through the ^^^ spleen, I shall not take np the time of the Society by 

 offering any preliminary observations, but state the circum- 

 stances which led to the discoyery, and the experiments by 

 which the different facts have been ascertained. 



Stomachduring During the investigation of the functions of the stomach, 



digestion sepa- r^^ which I have been lately engaged.) it was found, that, 



rated into two ^ . , J bb iJ 5 > 



portions. while digestion is going on, there is a separation between the 



cardiac and pyloric portions, either by means of a permanent 



or muscular contraction +. This fact placed the process of 



digestion in a new light, and led me to consider in what way 



the quantities of different liquors, which are so often taken 



into the stomach, can be prevented from being mixed with 



€iie half digested food, and interfering with the formation 



of chyle. 



Fluids chiefly Pursuing this inquiry, I found, that the fluids are princi- 



containtd in pally contained in the cardiac portion, and the food that 

 the cardiac por- ^ •> 

 tion, and car- 

 ried out of the * pj,i]os. Trans, for 1807, p. 45. The president and council of 

 out reactung the ^^^ Royal Society adjudged the medal on Sir Godfrey Copley's 

 pylorus. donation, for the year 180,7, to Mr. Home, for his various papers 



on anatomy and physiology, printed in the Philosophical Trans- 

 actions. 

 ■\ See our Jourijal, p, 15 of the present vol. 



has 



