COMPOSITION AND PROPERTIES OF CHYLE AND LYMPH. 213 



The Lymph examined iu the analyses numbered I and II was obtained from 

 the thigh of a healthy woman, 39 years of age ; that in No. Ill from a wound 

 on the dorsum of the foot ; that in No. IV from a saccular dilatation of a 

 Lymph-vessel of the spermatic cord ; that in No. V from a lymphatic fistula ; 

 aiid No. VI from the thigh of a patient suffering from Barbadoes leg. Leucin, 

 Su<;ar, and Urea have been found in the Lymph ; the latter in the very per- 

 ceptible proportion of 0.1 to 0.2 parts per 1000 (Wurtz). The gases con- 

 tained in the Lymph of man were long ago investigated by Henseu, 1 but the 

 recent researches of Hammarsteu 2 are more reliable, though they were made 

 upon lymph obtained from the dog. Hammarsten found about 30-32 per 

 cent, of gas in the lymph, of which nearly the whole was carbonic acid, the 

 quantity of nitrogen being 1 per cent,, whilst there was only a trace of 



oxgen. 



153. In fasting animals, the composition of the Chyle appears to resemble 

 very closely that of the Lymph, but during digestion its qualities sensibly 

 alte'r. The following analyses, compared with the table above, will enable 

 a comparison to be made between the Chyle and Lymph of man : 



The small proportion which the oleaginous bear to the albuminous substances 

 (as in the case of the lymph), in the first three of the preceding analyses, is 

 probably due to the circumstance that in these instances but little food had 

 been taken for some hours before death. The characters of the Chyle drawn 

 from the larger absorbent trunks, near their entrance into the Eeceptaculum 

 chyli, are very different from those of the fluid first absorbed into the Lacteals ; 

 for during its passage through these vessels and the Meseuteric glands, it under- 

 goes important alterations, which gradually assimilate it to Blood. The chyle 

 drawn from the lacteals that traverse the intestinal walls contain Albumen 

 in a state of complete solution ; but it is generally destitute of the power of 

 coagulation, no Fibrin being present in it, The salts, also, are completely 

 dissolved ; but the Oily matter presents itself in the form of globules of 

 variable size. 3 It is generally supposed that the milky color of the chyle is 

 owing to these ; but Mr. Gulliver has pointed out* that it is really due to an im- 

 mense multitude of far more minute particles, which he describes as forming 



1 Virchow's Archiv, Band xxxix. 2 Ludwig's Arbeiten, 1872, p. 121. 



8 These oily globules are more abundant in the Chyle of Man and of the Carnivora 

 than in that of "the Herbivora; their diameter has been observed to vary from ^^b. 

 to 2o l oo^ of an inch. 



4 Gerber's General Anatomy, Appendix, p. 88; and Hewson's Works (Sydenham 

 Society Edition), notes to pp. 82-88 ; and College Lectures in Med. Times and Gazette, 

 1863. ' 



