THE VETERINARY ART IN INDIA. 
267 
certain quantity of the more subtle and volatile particles of the 
vegetables from which they are produced. When the diuretic 
substance is received in the stomach and intestines, we are con- 
vinced that it is greatly divided and attenuated, or possibly entirely 
decomposed. In either case the more volatile parts may escape 
into the lacteals, and, being very active, may penetrate them, and 
pervade their whole length with rapidity, ascend the thoracic 
duct — not by mechanical force which is employed to convey the 
chyle — but from its own specific gravity, and be thus conveyed 
into the blood, where it may diffuse itself, and act as a general 
stimulant, or a partial one on the kidneys only. 
By this process, diuretics will affect the system in a few hours, 
varying according to the state of the animal. It is also a regular, 
and I think a natural, mode of operating, and what we have a 
right to expect from diffusible and stimulating substances ; and 
if the absorbents have the property of decomposing fluids, and 
circulating their elastic gases, the theory above ventured must 
be free from speculation and a natural result. 
This mode of operation will account for ether, turpentines, 
onions, asparagus, &c., giving their odour so soon to urine ; the 
time required for which may differ according to the state of the 
body and the ease with which the volatile parts are separated. 
Rhubarb and other ingredients, by this mode, may also give a 
tinge to urine in a very short period, when it is considered how 
intimately the volatile parts are sometimes blended with the 
colouring matter of vegetables, and that it is not necessary that 
a complete decomposition should take place in order to reach the 
system more rapidly than by the usual progress of chyle. 
Those substances which although not very volatile and diffusible, 
yet stimulate the kidneys, are generally acrid or saline; as cantha- 
rides, squills, onions, salt, &c., which may operate by the first mode, 
stimulating the nerves of the stomach very strongly ; or by the 
second mode, although not so rapidly, yet stimulating the kidneys 
when they arrive there ; or they may act from these properties con- 
jointly, influencing the whole system, and more particularly the 
kidneys. 
The substance of many diuretics is positively known to be 
conveyed into the system in a much shorter time than the na- 
tural progress of the chyle will admit; yet no other medium or 
passage is known leading to the kidneys. Turpentine will fre- 
quently give its odour to urine within half an hour, in which 
case the very positive existence of the substance having reached 
the kidneys is detected. The supposition of a more direct con- 
veyance than by the lacteals would present a still more inexpli- 
cable phenomenon, as such gross vessels could never have escaped 
