PROPERTIES AND COMPOSITION OF LYMPH. 521 



fluid, if not the only one, by which this excrementitious sub- 

 stance is taken up from the tissues. 1 Although urea always 

 exists in the blood, its quantity is less than in the lymph. 2 



The pathological alterations of the lymph have not been 

 experimentally investigated, if we except the early observa- 

 tions of Collard de Martigny upon the eifects of abstinence 

 upon the composition of this fluid. The experiments of this 

 observer upon the effects of abstinence upon the quantity 

 of lymph have already been referred to. 3 "With regard to 

 the influence of this condition upon the composition of the 

 lymph, we may take the results of three analyses of the fluid 

 from dogs that had been without food, respectively, for thir- 

 ty-two hours, nine days, and twenty-one days. 4 



After 32 hours. After 9 days. After 21 days. 



Water and salts 940-0 931-4 936-8 



Fibrin 3'0 5'8 3'2 



Albumen, fatty, and coloring matters. 57'0 62'S 60-0 



Bulletin de VAcademie Imperiale de Medecine, Paris, 1856-'57, tome xxii., p. 

 784. 



Wurtz discovered urea in a specimen of chyle brought to him by Berard for 

 examination, taken from a young bull. In less than a gramme of chyle, he dis- 

 covered large quantities of urea, and formed distinct crystals by combining it 

 with nitric acid. He believed that the urea came from the lymph and not from 

 the alimentary substances taken up from the intestine. This view was confirmed 

 by subsequent analyses, in which he discovered urea in the lymph of the dog, the 

 horse, and the ox. He found also that its proportion in the lymph was greater 

 than that naturally contained in the blood. (Written communication, in LONGET, 

 Traite de Physiologic, Paris, 1861, tome i., p. 429, note.) 



1 BERNARD, Lemons sur les Proprietes Physiologiques el les Alterations Patho- 

 logiques dcs Liquides de V Organisme, Paris, 1859, tome ii., p. 27. 



2 Wurtz, analyzing comparatively the blood, lymph, and chyle for urea, found 

 this substance in greatest proportion in the lymph. In a dog nourished with 

 meat, the proportion of urea was 0'089 parts per 1,000 in the blood and 0-158 in 

 the lymph ; in a cow, the proportion was 0*192 in the blood, 0*192 in the chyle, 

 and 0-193 in the lymph ; and in a ram, the proportion was 0-248 in the blood, 

 and 0-280 in the chyle. (Comptes Rendus, Paris, 1859, tome xlix., p. 53.) 



3 See page 511. 



4 COLLARD DE MARTIGNY, Rechercfies Experimental sur les Effets de V Absti- 

 nence complete d'Alimens solides et Jiquides, sur la Composition et la Quantite du 

 Sang et de la Lymphe. Journal de Physiologie, Paris, 1828, tome viii., p. 182 et seq. 



