ILEMOCONIOSIS 369 



found to be the case. It has not been possible to recover 

 from the lymph of the thoracic duct, collected during the 

 period of resorption of a known amount of fat, more than 

 sixty per cent, of the fat which disappeared from the intes- 

 tine. H. J. Hamburger 51 has satisfied himself that the re- 

 sorption of soaps from loops of the small intestine of the 

 dog continues even after the recognizable lymph vessels have 

 been ligated. 



H&moconiosis. In what form does the resorbed fat ap- 

 pear in the blood? After free fat diet the plasma, and, too, 

 the serum expressed from the clotted blood, looks milky; 

 and on standing a cream-like layer may be formed on the 

 surface by the collection of the fat globules. Kreidl and 

 Neumann 52 have observed in ultramicroscopic study of the 

 blood at time of fat resorption the appearance in the dark 

 field of great numbers of shining, very minute granules 

 ("hsemoconiae") which are not seen in the blood of the fast- 

 ing human being or of one on fat-free diet. If such exami- 

 nations of the blood are repeated at short intervals after the 

 ingestion of a meal rich in fat, and the quantity of the 

 particles visible in the field be estimated each time, one can 

 recognize a gradual accession of the fatty particles, and 

 after a maximum has been reached a gradual recession suc- 

 ceeding. About twelve hours after the last meal the serum 

 of healthy human beings is clear and free from hsemoconiaB. 

 In cats and rabbits the highest point of resorption is reached 

 in about four hours, in man in about six hours. 53 These 

 blood-dust particles seem to belong exclusively to that part 

 of the fat which reached the blood by way of the thoracic 

 duct. Solution in the blood cannot be said to take place. 

 The particles seem to disappear from the blood vessels 



81 H. J. Hamburger, Arch, f . Anat. u. Physiol., 1900, 554. 



"A. Neumann, Centralbl. f. Physiol., 21, 1907; Wiener klin. Wochenschr., 

 1907', A. Kreidl and A. Neumann, Sitzungsber. der Wiener Akad. Mathem. 

 Naturw. KL, 120, III, February, 1911. 



63 A. Kreidl and A. Neumann, 1. c.; E. Neisser and H. Brauning (Stettin), 

 Zeitschr. f. exper. Pathol., 4, 747, 1907. 

 24 



