ABSORPTION. 



The Lymph and Chyle. 



Lymph IB , under ordinary circumstances, a clear, transparent, and 

 yellowish fluid, of a specific gravity varying from 10121022 It 

 devoid of smell, is slightly alkaline, and has a saline taste. As seen with 

 the microscope in the small transparent vessels of the tail of the tad- 

 pole, it usually contains no corpuscles or particles of any kind- and it is 

 only in the larger trunks that any corpuscles are to be found These 

 corpuscles are similar to colorless blood-corpuscles. The fluid in which 

 the corpuscles float is albuminous, and contains no fatty particles- but 

 is liable to variations according to the general state of the blood, and to 

 that of the organ from which the lymph is derived. It may clot on ex 

 posure to the air. As it advances toward the thoracic duct, after pass- 

 ing through the lymphatic glands, it becomes spontaneously coagulable 

 and the number of corpuscles is much increased. 



Chyle, found in the lacteals after a meal, is an opaque, whitish, milky 

 fluid, neutral or slightly alkaline in reaction. Its whiteness and opacity 

 are due to the presence of innumerable particles of oily or fatty matter 

 of exceedingly minute though nearly uniform size, measuring on the 

 average about ^fav of an inch (0.8/,). These constitute what is termed 

 the molecular base of chyle. Their number, and consequently the opac- 

 ity of the chyle, are dependent upon the quantity of fatty matter con- 

 tained in the food. The fatty nature of the molecules is made manifest 

 by their solubility in ether. Each molecule probably consists of a drop- 

 let of oil coated over with albumen, in the manner in which minute 

 drops of oil always become covered in an albuminous solution. This is 

 proved when water or dilute acetic acid is added to chyle, many of the 

 molecules are lost sight of, and oil-drops appear in their' place, as the 

 investments of the molecules have been dissolved, and their oily con- 

 tents have run together. 



Except these molecules, the chyle taken from the villi or from lac- 

 teals near them, contains no other solid or organized bodies. The fluid 

 in which the molecules float is albuminous, and does not spontaneously 

 coagulate. But as the chyle passes on toward the thoracic duct, and 

 especially while traversing one or more of the mesenteric glands, it is 

 elaborated. The quantity of molecules and oily particles gradually di- 

 minishes; cells, to which the name of chyle-corpuscles is given, appear 

 in it; and it acquires the property of coagulating spontaneously. The 

 higher in the thoracic duct the chyle advances, the greater is the num- 

 ber of chyle-corpuscles, and the larger and firmer is the clot which forms 

 in it when withdrawn and left at rest. Such a clot is like one of blood 

 without the red corpuscles, having the chyle-corpuscles entangled in it. 

 and the fatty matter forming a white creamy film on the surface of the 



