508 MR. youatt’s veterinary lectures. 
stance, climb the whole way up the neck on both sides, loosely 
connected with the thyroid glands by cellular substance, and at 
length, as you will see, identifying themselves with and insepara¬ 
ble from the parotid. It is abundantly supplied, as you will 
perceive, by bloodvessels, and at whatever part we cut into it, a 
milky liquor exudes. 
Singular Disappearance of the Gland. —Soon after birth a 
singular change takes place. It separates from the parotid. The 
separation increases—or, rather, the gland gradually disappears, 
beginning from above downwards; and in the course of a few 
months not a vestige of it remains along the whole of the neck. 
It more slowly diminishes within the thorax, and at length dis¬ 
appears there too, and its situation is occupied by the thoracic 
duct. 
Function of the Thymus Gland .— Physiologists have not agreed 
on the function of,the thymus gland, or, rather, very few of them 
have ventured on any explanation of its use. It is evidently con¬ 
nected with the state of foetal existence—more particularly with 
the latter stage of it; and when the animal is born its function 
seems to cease, for it separates from the parotid, it disappears 
down the neck, and at length vanishes altogether. May not 
the hitherto unobserved connexion between the thymus and 
parotid gland in the foetus throw some light on this subject? 
They seem to form the extremities of the same gland, and secrete 
the same fluid ; and the parotid discharges its contents into the 
mouth. True the parotid after birth is a salivary gland, but is 
it of necessity so when connected with the thymus; or does it 
not then evidently secrete a different fluid—a milky one, and 
precisely of the same apparent character with the fluid which is 
often, or generally, found in the stomach of the foetus ? Ma- 
gendie speaks of the opaque and greyish fluid found in the 
stomach, and which seemed to have undergone a digestive pro¬ 
cess ; and all animals have a portion of feculent matter, if I may 
so term it, in the great intestines, the probable or evident pro¬ 
cess of a kind of digestion. 
Connected with Nutrition. —The thymus gland, then, is possibly 
connected with the nutritive system. It pours a bland and milky 
fluid through the parotid duct into the mouth, and so into the 
stomach, in order to habituate the stomach by degrees to the 
digestive process, to prepare it for that function on which the 
nutrition of the animal is to depend ; and also to prepare the in¬ 
testines for the discharge of their duty—the separation of the 
nutritious matter, and the propulsion down the canal of that 
which is fmcal. I dare not affirm anything positively on a sub¬ 
ject on which so many able physiologists have been silent; but 
