212 



OF ABSORPTION AND SANGUIFICATION. 



FIG. 90. 



(Fig. 77). In their course through the mesentery, the Lacteals pass into 

 the bodies known as the Mesenteric Glands, which stand in the same rela- 

 tion to them that the Absorbent Glands of the body generally do to the 

 Lymphatics. 



152. Composition and Properties of the Chyle and Lymph. The chief 

 chemical difference between these fluids consists in the much smaller pro- 

 portion of solid matter in the Lymph, 

 and in the almost entire absence of fat, 

 which is an important constituent of the 

 Chyle. Lymph is, in general, a color- 

 less transparent fluid, sometimes yellow- 

 ish, and sometimes turbid or opalescent, 

 having a faint odor, salt taste, and alka- 

 line reaction. Its chemical characters, 

 according to Ludwig, vary considerably 

 at different periods, and even in different 

 parts of the system at the same time ; so 

 4000 1* that of the fluids taken from the two 



a, Formation of lymph-corpuscle, first a shape- Sides of the neck, it will Sometimes hap- 

 less aggregation of molecules in a very finely- pen t h at Qne W JU coagulate Spontane- 

 granular base, next acquiring shape, which is i <-, , , T ,1 n j 

 completed in the third object At d Is an endo- A Usl 3', whllst the th f m * fluld ' 



genous brood of lymph-corpuscles, b, the perfect A considerable, though variable, num- 



lyinph-corpuscle acquiring a cell-wall, closely ad- bei' of COl'pUSCleS and minute oil-globllles 

 hering at first, and distended and made clearer ftre g enera H y pres ent J the lymph-COF- 



in the last object by dilute acetic acid, c, first, i i i 



the perfect lymph-corpuscle, scarcely affected, puscles are nuclei, which may acquire a 



after having been soaked in strong acetic acid ; Coating that gradually assumes the form 



then pale cells, from the lymph of the thoracic o f a cell-Wall, the whole then becoming 



duct, showing the double, triple, and quadruple ,, , i, n ,, K] oof l T., f l, e * 



division of the nucleus under the action of the 1 ' P al . e 



same acid. of acquiring this envelope, however, the 



nuclei undergo some alteration, since 



they now show indications of cleavage under the influence of acetic acid, 

 Avhich previously exerted little or no influence upon them. The stages of 

 formation of the lymph-corpuscles are well shown in the adjoining diagram 

 after Mr. Gulliver. 1 The oil-globules found in the lymph are always espe- 



ciivlly abundant after food. The preceding table shows the results of some 

 of the most accurate analyses that have been made upon human Lymph i 3 



1 Mod. Times and Gazette, Nov. 14th, 1863. 

 ' Virdiow's Arcliiv, 13d. xxxvii, 1S6U, p. 55. 

 3 v. Gorup-Besanez, Physiol. Chem., 1862, p. 358. 



