PROPERTIES AND COMPOSITION OF LYMPH.. 513 



accidental, and that they are always derived from the 

 blood. 



Lymph has no decided or characteristic odor. It is very 

 slightly saline in taste, almost insipid. Its specific gravity 

 is very much inferior to that of the blood. Magendie found 

 the specific gravity in the dog to be about 1,022.* Kobin 

 states that the specific gravity of the defibrinated serum of 

 the lymph is 1,009. 3 In some recent analyses, by Dahnhardt, 

 of the lymph taken from dilated vessels in the leg. in the 

 human subject, the specific gravity was only 1,00 7. 3 The 

 exceedingly low specific gravity in the last instance would 

 rather lead to the opinion that the fluid was not entirely 

 normal. The difiiculty in obtaining this fluid in a perfectly 

 normal condition from the human subject has rendered it 

 impossible to ascertain its normal specific gravity, even ap- 

 proximatively ; but it evidently possesses a density much 

 inferior to that of the blood. The reaction of the lymph is 

 constantly alkaline. According to Robin, the alkalinity 

 of the lymph is neutralized by 0*37 per cent, of lactic acid, 

 while the blood is neutralized by 0'50 per cent. 4 



A few minutes after discharge from the vessels, both the 

 lymph and chyle undergo spontaneous coagulation. Accord- 

 ing to Colin, the fluid collected from the thoracic duct in the 

 large ruminants coagulates at the end of five, ten, or twelve 

 minutes, and sets into a mass having exactly the form of the 

 vessel in which it is contained. Colin states that the clot is 

 tolerably consistent, but that there is never any spontaneous 

 separation of serum. 5 This may be the fact with regard to 

 the lymph and the chyle of the large ruminants, but in the 

 observations of Dalton, who operated upon dogs and goats, 



1 MAGENDIE, Precis fitimentaire de Physiologie, Paris, 183G, tome ii., p. 192. 



2 KOBIN, Programme du Cours, Paris, 1846, p. 111. 



8 DAHNHARDT, Zur Chimie der Lymphe. VIRCHOW'S Archiv, Berlin, 1866, 

 Bd. xxxvii., S. 59. 



4 Loc. cit 



6 COLIN, Traite de Physiologic Comparee des Animaux Domesiiques, Paris, 

 1856, tome ii., p. 111. 

 33 



