(seq. 103)

47 Lect 4^th

many persons, who have died of that Disorders.
It is a Question, whether Veins do absorb, but Lymphatics
do, Liquors cannot return by them, as they have Valves.
The general Opinion of a Gland is, that it is a circumscribed
Apparatus of soft Parts, abounding with Vessels, the Office
of which is to strain off a particular Part of the Blood, as the
Liver & Kidneys do, to convey a Liquor out of the Body, or to
[?] it for particular Uses within - The Liver, being ob-
served to be of a soft, tender & brittle Substance; it was inferred
that the smaller were of the same kind, & the larger being known
to be secretory Organs, it was concluded, that the lesser were al-
so Strainers of particular Juices. Their Anatomical Struc-
ture being little understood, till of late, the Antients conceived
that the Parts in the Interstices between the Tubes were made
up of coagulated Blood thrown out of the Vessel, & called
Parenchyma. In Malphigius Time, the Texture was
first began to be inquired into. He examined Glands in diseased
Bodies, also with Glasses & Injections of Ink. (Wax in his
Time not being used for that Purpose) from his Observati-
ons he established, that a Gland is composed of a Number