134 Mr, Home's further Experiments 
the evening of the 3d of December, 1807, had a drench given 
it, consisting of half a pint of the spirituous tincture of rhu- 
barb, diluted in half a pint of water. On the morning of the 
4th, this was repeated at eight o’clock, and again at twelve. 
At two o’clock the animal was pithed, so as to destroy its sen- 
sibility, and before the circulation was entirely stopped, six 
ounces of blood were taken from the splenic vein into a 
graduated glass measure, and a similar quantity was taken 
from the left auricle of the heart, into a vessel of the same 
kind : these were allowed to coagulate and separate their 
serum. 
The spleen was large and turgid ; upon making sections of 
it, the cells were found to be very numerous ; and towards the 
great end and near the edge, they were particularly distinct 
to the naked eye. The cut surface had a strong smell of 
rhubarb, and when it was applied to white paper wetted with 
the alkaline test, an orange tinge was produced. This was 
strongly contrasted by a stain made in the same manner with 
a section of the liver, which had no such tinge, nor did the liver 
give the slightest smell of rhubarb. 
Infusions were made of the spleen and liver under similar 
circumstances ; these were strained off into separate glasses, 
and tested by the alkali. The urine was tested in the same 
way. The serum, from the different portions of blood, was 
also poured off into separate glass vessels, to which the test 
was added. In nineteen hours after the blood had been taken 
from the veins, they were all compared together. The urine 
had so deep a tinge, that it nearly resembled the pure tincture 
of rhubarb in appearance ; the others had a tinge, although in 
very different degrees ; the quantity of rhubarb they contained 
