PROPERTIES AND COMPOSITION OF LYMPH. 517 



Composition of Human Lymph. 



First Analysis. Second Analysis. 



Water , 939-87 934-77 



Fibrin 0'56 O63 



Caseous matter (with earthy phosphates and traces 



of iron) 42-75 42-80 



Fatty matter (in the second analysis, fusible at 



102-3 Fahr.) , 3'82 9'20 



Hydro-alcoholic extract (containing sugar, and leav- 

 ing, after incineration, chloride of sodium, with 



the carbonate of soda) 13-00 12-60 



1,000-00 1,000-00 



The above analyses show a much larger proportion of 

 solid constituents than was found by Lassaigne in the lymph 

 of the cow. This excess is pretty uniformly distributed 

 throughout all the constituents, with the exception of the 

 fatty matters and fibrin ; the former existing largely in excess 

 in the human lymph, especially in the second analysis, while 

 the latter is smaller in quantity than in the lymph of the 

 cow. It is evident, however, from a comparison of the two 

 analyses of Gubler and Quevenne, that the composition of the 

 lymph, even when it is unmixed with chyle, is subject to 

 great variations. The caseous matter given by Gubler and 

 Quevenne is probably equivalent to the albuminous matter 

 of other chemists. 



The distinctive characters of the different principles 

 found in the lymph do not demand extended , considera- 

 tion, inasmuch as most of them have already been treated 

 of in connection with the blood. In comparing, however, 

 the composition of the lymph and the blood, we are at once 

 struck with the great excess of solid constituents in the latter 

 fluid. In the analyses of the serum of the blood by Bec- 

 querel and Rodier, the proportion of solid constituents was 

 ninety-two parts per 1,000 ; 1 while in the analyses of the hu- 



the fluid, the reader is referred to the Gazette Nedicale, 1854, pp. 361, 403, 452, 

 and 516. 



1 BECQUEREL ET EODIER, Chimie Pathologique, Paris, 1854, p. 86. 



