STRUCTURE AND USES OF THE ilPLKE.V. ^jgl 



The effects of rhubarb on the uj-ine, and the different F.xpfirWn * 

 parts of the blood, having been thus ascertained, a third ^'^'^ rL Lra 

 experiment was made, in which that substance was em- 

 fjloyed, and I had the assistance of the same gentlemen as 

 hi the others. 



On jNovember 17, 1807, at 35 minutes past 11 o'clock, on a dc-. 

 five drams of a mixture of tincture of rhubarb and water, 

 in the proportion of a dram to an ounce, were injected 

 into the stomach of a dog, the pylorus of which was se- 

 cured. At 20 minutes past one, two ounces of fluid were 

 brought up by vomiting: ten minutes afterwards, another 

 ounce of the mixture was injected, as were nine drams more 

 at half past four o'clock. The two last portions m ere re- 

 tained, and at eight o'clock in the evening the dog was 

 killed. 



On examining the parts after death, the pylorus was found None of the 

 to be completely secured; the stomach contained about two J^^^^^^^^l^^^^j^" 

 ounces of fluid; none of the absorbent vessels passing from distended, 

 its great curvature were in a distended state, so as to be ren- 

 dered visible. The spleen was turgid as in the former ex-but thesjiipen 

 pcriment, and the urinary bladder full of urine. bladder^full 



This urine, tested by the alkali, received a deeper tinge Rhubarb iu tl,. 

 of rhubarb than the human urine, after rhubarb had been"'"^^' 

 taken three hours by the mouth, and in other respects re- 

 sembled it. 



When the spleen was cut into, the cells were particularly and in ihc 

 brge and distinct. A portion of it was then macerated in^P^^^"- 

 two drams of water for ten minutes in a glass vial. All the 

 parts were exposed to the water, by its being divided in all 

 directions. The water thus impregnated was strained off 

 and tested by the alkali, and immediately the reddish brown 

 colour was produced in the centre, and no where else, but 

 m less than a minute it began to diffuse itself, and extended 

 over the whole. 



A similar portion of the liver was treated in the same way, None in the 

 and the alkali was added to the strained liquor, but no ''"'-''■• 

 change took place in it whatever. 



In this experiment the rhubarb was detected in the juices Could not i- 

 of the spleen as well as in the urine ; and as there was no ii!;'e^^'„n;„',",.', 

 appearance of it in the liver, it could not have arrived there absorbent s,. ■- 



5 through ^'^'"' 



