i 66 Mr. Home’s Experiments on Fluids , &c. 
On the 21 st of October, 1810, the following experiment, 
was made with the assistance of Mr. Brodie, Mr. Clift, 
Mr. Gatcombe, and Mr. Money. 
Experiment 3. 
The thoracic duct near its termination was secured in a dog, 
whose spleen had been removed four days before, and three 
ounces of infusion of rhubarb were injected into the stomach: 
jn an hour and half the dog was killed, and the urine was found 
strongly impregnated with rhubarb ; and on examination, the 
thoracic duct was found to be completely secured by the liga- 
ture. Several of the lacteals had burst, but the duct itself had 
not given way; it was greatly distended with chyle and lymph. 
By this experiment it was completely ascertained, that the 
spleen is not the channel through which the infusion of rhu- 
barb is conveyed into the circulation of the blood, as I had 
been led to believe, and therefore the rhubarb, in my former 
experiments detected in the spleen, must have been deposited 
there in the same manner as in the urine, and in the bile. 
The detection of this error made me more anxious to avoid 
being misled respecting the thoracic duct ; and therefore, 
although there was little probability that the infusion of rhu- 
barb could have passed into the lymphatic vessels, which open 
into the blood vessels of the right side of the neck, I thought 
it right, before I proceeded further, to repeat the experiment, 
securing the termination of the thoracic duct on the left side, 
and the lymphatic trunk of the right side, where it empties itself 
into the angle between the jugular and subclavian vein. This 
was done on the 28th of October, 1810, with the assistance 
of the same persons as in the last experiment. 
