1^6 Mr. Home’s further Experiments 
January, 1808, had a ball given it, containing half an ounce of 
powdered rhubarb ; on the 9th, at seven o’clock in the morn- 
ing, this was repeated ; a third was given at nine o’clock, and 
a fourth at twelve. At two o’clock the ass was pithed, and 
four ounces of blood were taken from the splenic vein, and 
the same quantity from the left auricle of the heart. 
The spleen was found contracted to half the size of those 
in the former experiments ; when cut into the cells were small, 
and it required a magnifying glass to see them distinctly. 
The substance was compact, and bore a near resemblance to 
a portion of liver ; so that in this state the blood vessels, 
particularly the veins, must have been much contracted in 
their diameters. 
The stomach contained about two ounces and a half of a 
gelatinous substance mixed with rhubarb, the small intestines 
were nearly empty, but the caecum and colon contained seve- 
ral quarts of water, in which the rhubarb was more evident 
both to the sight and smell, than in the stomach. 
The absorbent glands upon the edge of the colon were 
ranged in two rows, one on each side of the great vein, and 
were exceedingly numerous. In the space between these rows 
of glands, in some places twenty trunks of absorbent vessels 
could be readily counted, of a very large size. 
The urine was impregnated with rhubarb, so as to acquire 
an orange tinge from the addition of the test; but the infusion 
of the spleen, and the serum of the different portions of blood, 
did not contain it in sufficient quantity to have the colour 
heightened by alkali. 
Exp. 5. The last experiment was repeated upon another 
ass. Two ounces of blood were taken from the splenic vein, 
