] 10 EXPERIMENTS ON THE SPLElIN. 



The colon is theiefore a reservoir, from which the blood 

 vessels are occasionally supplied with liquids. 



Mr. Sewell informs me, that the same observation applies 

 in a still greater degree to the horse. 

 Liquif!s drunk , That coloured liquids taken into the human stomach, un- 

 de^-L' \ few ' *^^* some circumstances, begin to pass off by urine in seven- 

 minutes, teen minutes, continue to do so for some hours, and then 

 disappear; they are again met with in the urine, after the 

 colouring matter is known to have arrived at the great in- 

 testines, by its passing off by the bowels. 



From the above facts, the following conclusions may be 



drawn. 



Liquids con- That the liquids received into the stomach, beyond what 



t'h^'^ Mt'/^"^ are employed for digestion, are not wholly carried out of it 



spleen. by the common absorbents of the stomach, or the canal of 



the intestines, but are partly conveyed through the medium 



of the spleen into the circulation of the liver. 



Tliecommuni- The vessels which communicate between the stomach and 



catmg vessels ^jj^ spleen have not been discovered: but if it is pi'oved, 

 not yet disco- , , , . p , / 



Tered. that the colouring matter of the contents of the stomach 



is met with in greater quantity in the spleen, and in the vein 



which goes from that organ to the liver, than in the other 



veins of the body, there appears to be no other mode in which 



it can arrive there, but by means of such vessels; and the 



two different states of the spleen, which correspond with the 



quantities of liquids tbat pass from the stomach, are strongly 



in favour of the existence of such a channel. 



Hence people This communication between the cardiac portion of the 



clriiildne have stornach and the spleen will explain the circumstance of 



the spleen and those, who are in the habit of drinking spirituous liquors, 



uei laease . [^j^yj,^g, ^j^g spleen and liver so frequently diseased, and the 



diseases of both organs being of the same kind. 

 The spleen not This organ is not essential to life, its office being of a se- 

 esseniial to life condary kind ; but when it is materially diseased, or entirely 

 injure diircs-^ removed, digestion must be disturbed. The extent to which 

 ^■'o"' this takes place cannot be accurately known from experi- 



ments on quadrupeds, and the instances in which the human 

 spleen has been removed have not been attended to with 

 sufficient accuracy, to afford an explanation of the effects 

 that were produced on the stomach. 



V. 



