5 14 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE BLOOD. 
14 th. — Still better. Medicine as before, with an injection 
every four hours. 
1 5th. — All symptoms of convulsion have totally ceased ; the 
appetite much better. Bran mash as before, with linseed tea 
constantly within her reach. From the 16th to the 20th she 
was going on well : she was then turned out for three weeks, 
after which she was taken into her regular work, at which she 
has continued doing well to the present time. 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE BLOOD. 
By Mr. R. B. Rush, South Lopham, Norfolk. 
[Concluded from page 39/.] 
The Changes which the Blood undergoes during Circulation and 
Respiration. 
In its progress through the system, by means of the arteries, 
the blood undergoes very important changes. After having sup- 
ported the growth of parts, and supplied the secretions and 
necessities of the frame, it loses its arterial character, and in the 
minute capillaries becomes perfectly venalized. From them it is 
returned by the veins, as well as from many other parts (its 
colour now being a dark modena red), to the heart, to be decar- 
bonized and revivified. In its passage it becomes mixed with 
the chyle formed in the process of digestion and conveyed by 
the lacteal absorbents to the thoracic duct, and thence to the 
anterior cava, and with the lymph coming from all parts of 
the body by the lymphatic absorbents emptying themselves at 
different parts. It is the opinion of some that the veins perform 
the function of absorption. 
These fluids being received into the right auricle are well 
mixed, and forced by its contraction into the right ventricle, and 
thence propelled into the pulmonary artery through the lungs. 
The character of the pulmonary circulation, like its object, is 
remarkably different from that of any other part of the system- 
atic circulation. As this object is the change induced upon the 
blood by its exposure to the influence of the atmosphere, so the 
manifest design in the pulmonary structure, vessels, and circu- 
lation, is the diffusion of the blood over the greatest possible 
extent of surface. 
In a monthly publication which I was reading the other day, it 
was stated “that anatomical investigation, and injecting the 
parts, &c. lead us to conclude that the extreme branches of the pul- 
