He found, in filling the absorbents, that wherever the quicksilver arrived at a gland, there was a hesitation—its course became retarded, and that this retardation was longest at those glands which were _nearest the source_ whence the vessels had drawn their contents, viz. the alimentary canal: as if the surfaces over which the fluid had to pass were more multiplied where most _necessary_, or, recurring to our metaphor, as if the more strict _douanier_ had been placed on the frontier. He says that he found that some of the absorbents went _over_ the glands, whilst others _penetrated_ these bodies. That he found that the melted wax which he had thrown into the vessels had formed round nodules of various sizes. He then extended his examination of these vessels to those of horses and other large animals; and the result of his investigation was, that it inclined him to the conclusion that the glands were _not merely_ made up of convolutions of vessels, but were of _a really cellular structure_. The paper is very modestly put forth, and he concludes it by observing that he offers it merely for the facts which it contains, and not as justifying any _final_ conclusion; but "as all our knowledge of the absorbents," he continues, "seems to have been acquired by fragments, I am anxious to add my mite to our general stock of information on the subject." It may not be uninteresting to some unprofessional readers to know that the glands here alluded to are the organs which are so seriously diseased in those lamentable conditions popularly expressed, I believe, by the term mesenteric disease, or disease of the mesentery. SECTION II. CURIOUS CASES PUBLISHED IN THE "PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS," 1793. "The Universal Cause Acts to one end, but acts by various laws." POPE. However paradoxical it may appear, it is not the less true, that nothing more teachingly impresses the inquirer into nature with the _actual_ presence of general laws than the _apparent_ exceptions to them. Finite capacities in dealing with the Infinite must of course encounter multitudes of facts, the meaning of which they cannot interpret—portions of the Divine Government, as Butler has said, which they do not as yet understand. In philosophical investigations, these are properly regarded as facts which, in the present state of knowledge, cannot be made to fall under any of our very limited generalizations. At one period, departures from the ordinary structure or form in animals were simply regarded as unintelligible abstractions, and no more philosophical expression was given to them than "Lusus Naturæ"—sports of Nature. Progressive science, however, has thrown considerable light on such phenomena, and invested many of them with a new interest.