516 A3SOEPTION. 



representing the normal characters of this fluid. Lheritier 

 analyzed the contents of the thoracic duct of a man who died 

 of softening of the brain, having taken a little water thirty 

 hours before death. 1 This analysis gives a very large propor- 

 tion of fibrin, albumen, and fatty matters (3*20 of fibrin, 60*02 

 of albumen, and*5'10 of fat, per 1,000), so large, indeed, that 

 some physiologists doubt the accuracy of the results. 2 On the 

 other hand, the analyses of Marchand and Colberg, 3 which are 

 so often quoted, give, as the composition of lymph extracted 

 from a wound of the lymphatics on the top of the foot, a very 

 large proportion of water (969*26 parts per 1,000), and conse- 

 quently a small proportion of solid matter. We would sup- 

 pose that fluid thus taken from a wounded part must neces- 

 sarily contain an admixture of pathological secretions. 



The analyses of human lymph which seem to be the 

 most reliable, and in which the fluid was apparently pure and 

 normal, are those of Grubler and Quevenne. The lymph, in 

 this case, was collected by Desjardins from a female who 

 suffered from a varicose dilatation of the lymphatic vessels 

 in the anterior and superior portion of the left thigh. These 

 vessels occasionally ruptured, and the lymph could then be 

 obtained in considerable quantity. When an opening existed, 

 the discharge of fluid could be arrested at will by flexing the 

 trunk upon the thigh. Gubler and Quevenne made elaborate 

 analyses of two different specimens of the fluid, with the fol- 

 lowing results. 4 



1 BECQUEREL ET RODIER, Traite de Chimie Pathologique, Paris, 1854, p. 3. 



" LONGET, Traite de Physiologic, Paris, 1861, tome i., p. 411. 



8 MARCHAND UND COLBERG, Jfeber die chemische Zusammensetzung dcr 

 menschlicJicn Lymphe. POGGENDORFF'S Annalen der PhysiJc und Chemie, Leipzig, 

 1838, Bd. cxix., S. 629. 



4 DESJARDINS, Note sur un Cas de Dilatation variqueuse du Reseau Lymplia- 

 tique superficiel du Derme ; Emission voluntaire de Lymphe ; Analyse de cette 

 Lymplie,par GUBLER ET QUEVENNE. Gazette Mcdicale de Paris, 1854, p. 454. 



The two tables of Gubler and Quevenne have been brought together and the 

 proportions changed from hundreds to thousands. An evident error in the sec- 

 ond analysis (9'92 instead of 0'92 parts of fatty matter per hundred) has been 

 corrected. For a full account of this case, with the analyses and examinations of 



