Page:Reflections upon ancient and modern learning (IA b3032449x).pdf/264

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224
Reflections upon

Suction; and, lest any one of them being stopped, the Milk should stagnate, they all have cross Passages into each other, at the Bottom of the Nipple, where it joyns to the Breast.

The fore-mentioned Discovery of the Passage of the Chyle obliged Men to reexamine the Notions which, till then, had generally obtained, concerning the Nature and Uses of the Liver. Hitherto it had been generally believed, that the Blood was made there, and so dispersed into several Parts, for the Uses of the Body, by the Vena Cava. Erasistratus, indeed, supposed (p)(p) Galen de U. P. lib. 4. cap. 13. that its principal Use was, to separate the Bile, and to lodge it in its proper Vessels: But, for want of further Light, his Notion could not then be sufficiently proved; and so it presently fell, and was never revived, till Asellius's and Pecquet's Discoveries put it out of doubt. Till Malpighius discovered its Texture by his Glasses, its Nature was very obscure. But he has found out, (1.) That the Substance of the Liver is framed of innumerable Lobules, which are very often of a Cubical Figure, and consist of several little Glands, like the Stones of Raisins; so that they look like Bunches of Grapes, and are each of them cloathed with a distinct Membrane.

(2.) That