PROPERTIES AND COMPOSITION OF LYMPH. 515 



Coliu especially, the fluids taken from the thoracic duct dur- 

 ing the intervals of digestion undoubtedly represent the 

 normal mixed lymph collected from nearly all parts of the 

 body ; ,and the operative procedure in the large ruminants is 

 so simple as to produce little if any general disturbance. The 

 following is an analysis by Lassaigne of specimens of lymph 

 collected by Colin from the thoracic duct of a cow, under the 

 most favorable conditions : 



Composition of Lymph from a Cow. 1 



Water! 964-0 



Fibrin 0'9 



Albumen 28-0 



Fatty matter 0'4 



Chloride of sodium 5'0 



Carbonate, phosphate, and sulphate of soda 1-2 



Phosphate of lime 0'5 



1,000-0 



These proportions are by no means invariable, the differ- 

 ences in coagulability indicating differences in the propor- 

 tion of fibrin, and the degree of lactescence showing great 

 variations in the proportion of fatty matters. The table 

 may be taken, however, as a pretty close approximation of 

 the average composition of the lymph of these animals, dur- 

 ing the intervals of digestion. 



Of the various analyses of human lymph, it will be ne- 

 cessary only to select a few, as most of them are far from. 



1 COLIX, Traite de Physiologie Comparee des Animauz Domestiqties, Paris, 

 1856, tome ii., p. Ill, 



The proportions in this table have been changed from hundreds to thousands. 

 In this, as in all other analyses of the lymph, the organic constituents are esti- 

 mated dry. In treating of the composition of the blood (see vol. i., p. 130 et seq.}, 

 we endeavored to show that the water which exists in coagulated fibrin and albu- 

 men should be considered as water of composition ; coagulation simply altering 

 the form of these organic principles without changing their constitution. Accord- 

 ing to this view, an estimate of these substances in a dry state gives the quantity 

 of the residue after desiccation, and not their actual proportion in a natural 

 condition. 



