FOEMATION OF LYMPH-CORPUSCLES. 39 



Human lymph has been obtained fresh from the living body in 

 Beveral instances, from lymphatic vessels, opened by wounds or other 

 causes. It has been found to agree in all material points with the 

 lymph of quadrupeds. 



The chyle of man and mammiferous animals is an opaque, white 

 fluid, like milk, Avith a faint odour and saltish taste, slightly alkaline 

 or altogether neutral in its reaction. It has often a decided red tint, 

 especially when taken from the thoracic duct. This colour, which is 

 heightened by exposure to air, is doubtless generally due to the presence 

 of blood-corpuscles, and may be explained in the same way as the 

 occasional red colour of lymph. 



Like blood and lymph, both of which fluids it greatly resembles 

 in constitution, the chyle consists of a liquid holding small parti- 

 cles in suspension. These particles are, 1. Co)-pi(scIes, precisely 

 like the lymph and pale blood-corpuscles already described. 2. 

 Molecules, of almost immeasurably minute but remarkably uniform 

 size. These abound in the fluid, and form an opaque white molecular 

 matter diffused in it, which was named by Gulliver the molecular base 

 of the chyle. The addition of ether instantly dissolves this matter, and 

 renders the chyle nearly, but not quite, transparent ; whence it may be 

 inferred that the molecules are minute particles of fatty matter, and no 

 doubt the chief cause of the opacity and whiteness of the chyle. 

 According to the late H. Miiller, they are each coated with a fine film of 

 albuminoid matter. They exhibit the usual tremulous movement com- 

 mon to the molecules of many other substances. 3. OiJ-yJolules ; these 

 are of various sizes, but much larger than the molecules above de- 

 scribed, and are often found in the chyle in considerable numbers. 4. 

 Minute spherules (Gulliver), from -j^o-oo to ^^-^ of an inch in diameter; 

 probably of an albuminous nature, and distinguished from the fatty 

 molecules by their varying magnitude and their insolubility in ether. 



The plasma, or liquid part of the chyle, contains fibrin, so that 

 chyle coagulates on being drawn from the vessels, and nearly all the 

 corpuscles, with part of the molecular base, are involved in the clot. 

 The serum which remains resembles in composition the seram of 

 lymph ; the most notable difference between them being the larger pro- 

 portion of fatty matter contained in the chyle-serum. 



Tlie following' analyses of lymph and chyle exhibit the proportions of th?, 

 different ingredients ; but it must he explained that the amount of the corpuscles 

 cannot be separately given, the greater part of them being included in the clot 

 and reckoned as fibrin. No. 1 is the mean of two analyses, by Gubler and 

 Quevenne, of human lymph taken during life from the lymphatics of the thigh ; 

 No. 2 the mean of three analyses by Gmelin of IjTnph from the thoracic duct of 

 horses after privation of food ; No. 3, by O. Rees, of chyle from the lacteals 

 of an ass, after passing the mesenteric glands. 



1000- 1000- lOOf*- 



