452 OF ABSORPTION AND SANGUIFICATION. 



The Lymph obtained from the neck of a horse has been analyzed by Nasse, with 

 nearly the same result. He found it to contain 95 per cent, of water ; and the 

 5 per cent, of solid matter was chiefly composed of albumen and fibrin, with 

 watery extractive, scarcely a trace of fat being discoverable. The proportions 

 of saline matter were found to be remarkably coincident with those which exist 

 in the serum of the blood ; as might be expected from the fact that the fluid 

 portion of the lymph must have its origin in that which has transuded through 

 the bloodvessels : the absolute quantity, however, is rather less. A similar 

 analysis of the Chyle of a cat by Nasse, has given results very closely corre- 

 spondent with that of Dr. Rees; for the proportion of water was 90.5 per cent. ; 

 and of the 9.5 parts of solid matter, the albumen, fibrin, and extractive amounted 

 to more than 5, and the fat to more than 3 parts. 1 Dr. Rees has also analyzed 

 the fluid of the Thoracic duct of Man ; 3 and found it to consist of 90.48 per cent, 

 of water, 7.08 parts of albumen and fibrin, 1.08 parts of aqueous and alcoholic 

 extractive, and 0.92 of fatty matter, with 0.44 per cent, of salines. Thus the 

 composition of this fluid would seem to resemble that of the Lymph, rather than 

 that of the Chyle ; the proportion of the fatty to that of the albuminous matter 

 being very small. This, however, might have been very probably due to the 

 circumstance, that the subject from which the fluid was obtained (an executed 

 criminal) had eaten but little for some hours before his death. 



475. The characters of the Chyle drawn from the larger absorbent trunks, 

 near their entrance into the receptaculum chyli, are very different from those of 

 the fluid as first absorbed into the Lacteals ; for during its passage through these 

 vessels, and their ganglia or glands, it undergoes important alterations, which 

 gradually assimilate it to Blood. The chyle drawn from the lacteals that 

 traverse the intestinal walls, contains Albumen in a state of complete solution; 

 but it is generally destitute of the power of coagulation, no Fibrin being present 

 in it. The Salts also are completely dissolved ; but the Oily matter presents 

 itself in the form of globules of variable size. 3 It is generally supposed that the 

 milky color of the chyle is owing to these ; but Mr. Gulliver has pointed out 4 

 that it is really due to an immense multitude of far more minute particles, which 

 he describes as forming the molecular base of the chyle. These molecules are 

 most abundant in rich, milky, opaque chyle j and in poorer chyle, which is semi- 

 transparent or opaline, the particles float thinly or separately in the transparent 

 fluid, and often exhibit the vivid motions common to the most minute molecules 

 of various substances. Such is their minuteness, that, even with the best in- 

 struments, it is impossible to form an exact appreciation either of their form or 

 their dimensions. They seem, however, to be generally spherical ; and their 

 diameter may be estimated at between l-36,000th and l-24,000th of an inch. 

 Their chemical nature is as yet uncertain : they are remarkable for their un- 

 changeableness, when subjected to the action of numerous reagents which 

 quickly affect the proper Chyle-corpuscles ; and they are readily soluble in ether, 

 the addition of which causes the whole molecular base instantly to disappear, not 

 a particle of it remaining; whence it may be inferred that they consist of oily or 

 fatty matter. That they do not ordinarily tend to coalesce, is probably due to 

 the coating of albumen which they obtain through their diffusion in an albuminous 

 fluid ( 42, note) j if, however, this be dissolved by acetic acid, or even by the 

 addition of water, many of the molecules are lost sight of, and oil-drops appear 



1 Wagner's "Handworterbuch," Art. "Chylus." 



2 " Philosophical Transactions," 1842. 



3 These oily globules are more abundant in the Chyle of Man and of the Carnivora, than 

 in that of the Herbivora; their diameter has been observed to vary from l-25,000th ta 

 1 -2000th of an inch. 



4 "Dublin Medical Press," Jan. 1, 1840, and "Gerber's General Anatomy," Appendix, 

 p. 88. 



