220 



LYMPHATIC AND LACTEAL SYSTEM. 



presence of blood corpuscules which have ac- 

 cidentally entered it. After coagulation had 

 taken place, the lymph was again examined 

 under the microscope, the globules were all 

 found entangled in the clot ; scarcely one re- 

 mained in the transparent fluid. The clot, when 

 disturbed, torn, and pressed, contracted to less 

 than one-twentieth of its original bulk, and the 

 few blood corpuscules it contained, being now 

 approximated closely together in the contracted 

 clot, gave it a slightly red tint. On examining 

 the serum of this lymph under the micro- 

 scope a week afterwards, when putrefaction 

 had commenced, numerous exceedingly minute 

 animalcules were teen diffused through it in 

 active motion. 



M tiller gives an account of a fluid which 

 makes its appearance after a portion of the skin 

 of a frog is removed from the muscles ; this 

 fluid lie considers to be pure lymph ; he de- 

 scribes it as perfectly transparent and colourless, 

 having a saline taste, but void of smell. Under 

 the microscope he detected in it a number of 

 colourless and spherical globules, about one- 

 fourth of the magnitude of the elliptical blood 

 corpuscule of the same animal, a few of which 

 were unavoidably mixed with this lymph. 

 M tiller also describes what he considers to be 

 human lymph, obtained from a small fistulous 

 opening on a man's foot, the remains of a wound 

 received on the instep ; by pressure from the 

 great toe towards the opening a transparent 

 fluid could be made to transude; this fluid also 

 contained colourless spherical globules, much 

 smaller than the blood corpuscules. It, as 

 well as that obtained from the frog, coagulated 

 spontaneously, and appeared to possess the 

 other properties of lymph. After coagulation 

 had taken place in the fluid obtained from the 

 man's foot, he observed that the globules were 

 partly found in the clot, while some remained 

 in the fluid surrounding the clot. In the horse's 

 lymph examined by myself, all the globules 

 were entangled in the clot. 



The red colour of the contents of the tho- 

 racic duct, especially in the horse, has been 

 remarked by most observers, but the cause 

 of this redness has not been well ascer- 

 tained. Breschet says, in his Systeme Lym- 

 phatique, page 160 : " Ce qu'il cut e"te in- 

 teressant surtout de determiner, c'est si la ma- 

 tiere colorante qui teint quelquefois le chyle, 

 et meme la lymphe, y est dissoute, ou si elle 

 affecte soil toujours, soil au moins quelque- 

 fois, la meme disposition que celle des globules 

 du sang." I have frequently examined micro- 

 scopically this reddish fluid of the thoracic duct, 

 and have invariably found it to depend upon 

 the presence of red corpuscules of precisely the 

 form and size of those of the blood. I believe 

 that these red corpuscules are extraneous to the 

 lymph, that their presence is accidental, and 

 should be considered as a post-mortem occur- 

 rence. I would attribute their existence in the 

 contents of the thoracic duct to the circum- 

 stance that very many lymphatics must be di- 

 vided with the other structures, before the tho- 

 racic duct or indeed any large lymphatic can 

 be exposed; these divided lymphatics must 



necessarily have blood applied to their cut 

 extremities ; the vessels being open receive the 

 blood corpuscules, and convey them from all 

 parts to the thoracic duct. This is not mere 

 conjecture. I have seen the blood enter the 

 divided vessels in the following experiment 

 made for the purpose. On the under surface 

 of the liver of a horse recently killed I ob- 

 served some large lymphatics filled with a 

 beautifully transparent fluid. I made an inci- 

 sion into the liver over these vessels, of course di- 

 viding them, and in a few seconds saw them con- 

 veying a reddish fluid towards the thoracic duct. 

 The lymph bears great resemblance to the 

 liquor sanguinis both in its physical and che- 

 mical characters. Miiller, who had observed 

 that the blood of frogs will not coagulate when 

 they are kept out of water in summer for eight 

 or ten days, mentions the coincidence that 

 when this is the case, the transparent fluid 

 which he obtained by removing a piece of skin 

 from a living frog, and winch he conceived to 

 be the lymph of the animal, was also incapable 

 of spontaneous coagulation. 



Leuret and Lassaigne give the following 

 analysis of lymph obtained from the lympha- 

 tics of the neck in a horse : 



Water 925 



Albumen 57-36 



Fibrine 3'30 



Chloride of sodium -\ 



Chloride of potassium ... ' 



Soda i 



Phosphate of lime J 



14-34 



1000-00 



Salivary matter, ozmazome, carbonates, sul- 

 phates, muriates, and acetates of soda and 

 potash, with phosphate of potash, have in addi- 

 tion been detected in the lymph by Tiedemann 

 and Gmelin. 



Chevreul analysed some lymph procured by 

 Magendie from the thoracic duct of a horse 

 after five days' abstinence. Its composition, 

 was as follows : 



Water 926'4 



Fibrine 4'2 



Albumen 61-0 



Muriate of soda 6'1 



Carbonate of soda 1-8 



Phosphate of lime l 



Carbonate of magnesia . . . . J 5 



Carbonate of lime , . ) 



1000-0 



M. Magendie and M. Collard de Martigny 

 have examined the lymph in animals, after de- 

 priving them altogether of sustenance ; up to 

 the tenth or twelfth day the lymph was found 

 in greater abundance, appeared to have more of 

 the red tinge, and to be more consistent; but 

 after this period it diminished in quantity, be- 

 came more watery and had less of the rose tint. 

 The latter physiologist rejects altogether the 

 opinion entertained by some, that the lymph 

 would assume a redder colour the longer the 

 animal fasted. 



