ON THE BLOOD, BLOODVESSELS, AND ABSORBENTS. 407 
cumstances came under my observation, which induced me 
seriously to reflect on what I had previously been taught; and 
the result was, that, at last, my confidence became shaken. 
My attention was thus drawn to the investigation of subjects 
which I soon conceived might prove interesting and important, 
not only to those practising the veterinary art, but likewise the 
professors of human medicine. Accordingly, June 28, 1826, a 
communication of mine appeared in the Lancet (see No. 149, 
vol. x); and the parts thereof most worthy of notice, as well 
as those of a variety of others which have appeared from time to 
time since, as well as the results of more recent observations 
and experiments, I beg leave to transmit to you for the purpose 
of laying them before the veterinary profession, and the public. 
I shall also introduce many remarks on what I have already 
published, it being six years since my first communication ap¬ 
peared ; and the different subjects having been more closely in¬ 
vestigated by me since, I may be considered more competent to 
give an opinion respecting them. 
No. l. 
On the Functions of the first and second Classes of Absorbents. 
In the month of June, 1826 (see Lancet), I was requested by 
some of our pupils, among whom was Mr. Sible, who is now a 
very able veterinary practitioner at Norwich, to attend them to 
a slaughter-house near Smithfield, for the purpose of instructing 
them in the performance of some necessary operations, and also 
of demonstrating some of the most important parts of the inte¬ 
rior of the horse. Accordingly we selected for examination a 
five-year old mare, which was brought to be destroyed on ac¬ 
count of a disease in her foot. After she was struck on the 
head, and her throat cut, we proceeded to dissect the abdominal 
viscera, and, on detaching the caecum from the colon, I was 
much surprised to observe the second class of lacteal vessels 
situated in the mesentery, and surrounding the lymphatic glands, 
among the adipose substance, near the spine, greatly enlarged, 
and containing dark red blood; while, on the contrary, all those 
lacteals of the first class, and which arise from the inner surface 
of the intestines, and terminate in the second class, by means 
of the lymphatic glands, were much smaller in size than usual, 
and contained only a transparent fluid. The lymphatic glands, 
like the second class of lacteals, were full of dark red blood, as 
also the thoracic duct. I next examined the lymphatics of the 
lungs, and other parts of the body, and found them in a per¬ 
fectly natural state, except a few of them on the concave part 
