Page:Reflections upon ancient and modern learning (IA b3032449x).pdf/262

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Reflections upon

carried the Chyle from the Intestines into several Glandulous Bodies, and there lodged them. These are the Milky Veins again discovered by Asellius about Fifty Years ago, and those Glands which Herophilus spoke of, are probably that great Collection of Glands in the Mesentery that is commonly called the Pancreas Asellii. After Herophilus none of the Ancients had the Luck to trace the Motions of the Chyle any further, and so these milky Veins were confounded with the Mesaraicks, and it was commonly believed, That because all Mesaraicks carry the Blood from the Intestines into the Liver, therefore they carried Chyle also when there was any Chyle to carry; and hence probably it was that the Liver was believed to be the common Work-House of the Blood. But when Asellius had traced the Chyle as far as the great Gland of the Mesentery, it was soon found not to lie there. And Pecquet, about Forty Years since, discovered the common Receptacle of the Chyle, whither it is all brought. Thence he also found that it is carried, by particular Vessels through the Thorax, almost as high as the Left-Shoulder, and there thrown into the Left Subclavian Vein, and so directly carried to the Heart. It has also been discovered that in his Canal,usually