EXPERIMENTS ON THE SPLEEN. lO/ 



inflammation of the brain, and sometimes death; and this of the brain m 

 information having been in some measure confirmed by an "°''s^*« 

 ass in a weakly state, that had taken half a pint of the spi- 

 rituous tincture of rhubarb in the evening, dying in the 

 night; I thought it right to make a comparative experiment 

 with the infusion of rhubarb, to determine whether the re- 

 sult would be the same as with the tincture. 



February 9, 1808. An ass had a pint of infusion of rhu- E^p. 6. 

 barb given to it ia the evening ; the same dose was repeated aqueous infu- 



at six o'clock in the morning of the 10th ; and again at nine sion of rhubarb 



a ' o ^ givea. 



o'clock, and at twelve. At two o'clock the animal was 



pithed, and two ounces of blood were taken from the splen- 

 ic vein, two from the vein of the colon, and two from the 

 inferior vena cava in the lower part of the loins. 



The spleen was found turgid, and large; when the cut Rhubarb found 

 surface was rubbed on white paper, the orange tint was '" sjjieeu, 

 very evident without any test applied to it, particularly so, 

 when compared with a similar stain made by a section of 

 the liver, in which there was no such tinge. 



In the stomach and duodenum, the rhubarb was found in stomach and 

 large quantities; but none was met with in the ceecum. duodenum. 



The urine was impregnated with rhubarb, tiie orange tint i^irine, 

 upon the application of the alkali being very distinct. 



At the end of twenty hours, the serum of the splenic '^i^^^ scrum, 

 vein had a tinge equal to four drops of the tincture of rhu- 

 barb in two ounces of alkaline water; that of the vein of 

 the colon and vena cava was less distinct. 



The effects of the infusion of rhubarb on the spleen, the Effects sllgTitsr 



serum of theblood, and the urine, corresponded exaftlv with *^''"' ^'''^'^ ^^® 



" r ,» "-•' tincture. 



that of the tincture in the former experiments, but was in a 

 less degree of intensity. 



In the course of these experiments, an attempt was made Quantity of 

 to ascertain whether the blood in the splenic vein has a ^'^'^""i "P- 

 greater proportion of serum than in the other veins of the greater ii« 

 body, and the general results were in favour of such an ^'°"'^' ^"^"^ 



• • 1 i -i Ml r 1 i p Ti 1 1 splenic vein ? 



opmion; but it will appear, trom what follows, that the but what gepa 

 quatitiry of serum separated in twentv-fouv hours is by no rates in 24 

 means a juft criterion of the proportion, which the blood criterion.^ 

 contains. 



Experiment 1. Three ounces of bl.ood from the arm of a Exp. i. 



healthy 



