222 



LYMPHATIC AND LACTEAL SYSTEM. 



encing inert and unorganized particles. It is 

 assuredly a striking fact, arid one fraught with 

 great interest, that the new molecules on their 

 first introduction into the living system, should 

 possess one of the most conspicuous attributes 

 of vitality, viz. motion.* Mr. Ancell, who has 

 paid great attention to the animal fluids, has 

 frequently examined these moveable granules 

 with me, and is inclined to consider their mo- 

 tions, as indicating the first obvious impress of 

 vitality which the new material has received 

 from its association with living matter. Be- 

 sides the granules, there exist in the chyle 

 numerous spherical globules colourless and 

 granular on the surface, averaging 1 -5000th, 

 but ranging between l-3000th and l-7000th of 

 an inch in diameter, resembling in every par- 

 ticular the lymph globule, with which they are 

 probably identical. These globules I conceive 

 are not derived from the interior of the intes- 

 tine as some have supposed, nor from the 

 glands, as I presume is Mr. Gulliver's opinion, 

 but I would rather say are formed in the chyle 

 and lymph by the aggregation of similar par- 

 ticles, probably fibrinous. Globules of oily 

 or fatty matter are also found in the chyle; 

 these may be readily distinguished by their 

 circular and even outline, by their smooth and 

 apparently flat surfaces, and by the great variety 

 of their size, some being as small as the chyle 

 granule, while others exceed the globule in 

 diameter; in many respects they resemble the 

 milk globule in appearance. Blood corpuscules 

 will of course be frequently seen mixed with 

 the chyle, as it is exceedingly difficult to collect 

 it free from them. In the chyle the blood cor- 

 puscule loses its circular outline, its ordinary 

 flattened form, its concave or cupped surface, 

 and assumes a corrugated or wrinkled appear- 

 ance, a spiked or serrated edge ; the blood 

 corpuscules, when thus corrugated, are less in 

 diameter than the surrounding chyle globules, 

 and have frequently been mistaken for them. 

 On examining the blood taken from a living 

 animal after a recent flow of chyle into it, this 

 appearance of the blood corpuscule will also 

 be readily distinguished. The corrugations 

 alluded to on the blood corpuscule may be 

 mistaken for spots on it; and when the corpus- 

 cule is revolving or vibrating, they may even 

 appear like particles moving within it. I was 

 for a short time misled by this deceptive ap- 

 pearance into the belief that the chyle granule, 

 when received into the blood, entered the 

 envelope of the blood corpuscule to form its 

 nucleus. This erroneous notion, however, was 

 soon corrected on finding that other fluids pro- 

 duced the same appearance in the blood cor- 

 puscules. It will be observed then, that I am 

 induced to think that the chyle is never per- 

 fectly free from lymph; that in fact the lymph 

 is termed chyle when it is rendered white by 

 the addition of the moveable chyle granules 

 from the interior of the intestine, to which are 



* [Wagner has depicted in his Icones Physiolo- 

 gicae minute granules, which he designates " Mole- 

 cule minores, cujusmodi in liquore chyli natant, 

 procul dubio chyli granula futura." Tab. xiii. 

 fig. 11. ED.] 



added from the same source the oily or fatty 

 particles. 



If the clot and serum of the chyle be exa- 

 mined separately under the microscope, they 

 will both be found to contain the chyle granule 

 in sufficient quantity to render them white ; 

 the chyle globule, or any blood corpuscule 

 that the specimen may have contained, will be 

 entangled in the clot, while the oily particles 

 will be principally found in the serum. If the 

 coagulation has been incomplete, or the spe- 

 cimen has been agitated, some chyle globules 

 and blood corpuscules will of course be mixed 

 with the serum. 



The chyle has been analyzed by Reuss and 

 Emmert, by Vauquelm, by Marcet, Prout, 

 and Brande, by Leuret and Lassaigne and by 

 Tiedemann and Gmelin, but in a science so ra- 

 pidly progressive as chemistry it is desirable to 

 adduce the most recent information bearing on 

 the subject. I shall therefore select the ana- 

 lysis given by Berzelius, (taken from the trans- 

 lation of his treatise on Chemistry by Me. Es- 

 linger, published at Paris in 1833,) who adopts 

 some of the opinions of Tiedemann and Gme- 

 lin, and with whose analysis of the chyle his 

 pretty exactly agrees. 



In 100 parts of chyle, taken from the tho- 

 racic duct of a horse during the digestion of a 

 meal of oats, he obtained, after breaking up 

 and pressing the clot, 96'99 parts by weight of 

 serum and 3'01 of clot : the former was re- 

 duced by desiccation to 7'39 parts and the 

 latter to 0-78 ; consequently, after evaporation, 

 the proportions in 100 parts stood thus 



Desiccated clot 0'78 



Desiccated serum 7-39 



Water 91-83 



100-00 



The dry clot softened when digested in dis- 

 tilled vinegar, but without being dissolved by 

 it to any perceptible extent. A small quantity 

 of a brownish-yellow oil was obtained from it 

 by the action of boiling alcohol. 



One hundred parts of the desiccated serum 

 contained 



Brown fatty matter 15-47 



Yellow fatty matter 6'35 



Osmazome, lactate of soda, and chlo- } 1fi . n 



ride of sodium $ 



Extractive matter soluble in water, in- 

 soluble in alcohol, with carbonate 

 and a little phosphate of soda .... 



Albumen 55'25 



Carbonate with traces of phosphate of ) 



lime. 



2-76 



2-76 



98-61 



It has been generally stated and believed 

 that a sufficient quantity of chyle for chemical 

 analysis could not be obtained from the lacteals 

 before they reached the thoracic duct, conse- 

 quently, that which has hitherto been submitted 

 to chemical examination has been taken from 

 the trunk of the system, where it must of ne- 

 cessity have been mixed with a greater or less 



