CHYLOSIS. 647 



With regard to the precise quantity of chyle, formed after a meal, 

 we know nothing definite. When digestion is not going on, there can 

 of course be none formed except from the digestion of the secretions of 

 the digestive tube itself; and, after an abstinence of twenty-four hours, 

 the contents of the thoracic duct are chiefly lymph. During digestion, 

 the quantity of chyle formed will bear some relation to the amount of 

 food taken, the nutritive qualities of the food, and the digestive powers 

 of the individual. M. Magendie, 1 from an experiment made on a 

 dog, estimated, that at least half an ounce was conveyed into the mass 

 of blood, in that animal, in five minutes : and the flow was kept up, but 

 much more slowly, as long as the formation of chyle continued. In 

 experiments on a cat, Professor F. Bidder 2 found the amount that passed 

 through the thoracic duct in the twenty-four hours, to be in proportion 

 to the weight of the body as 1 to 5-34; or about that which as else- 

 where shown the mass of blood has been generally conceived to bear 

 to the weight of the body. In dogs, the proportion was as 1 to 6*66. 

 It is difficult, however, to establish an average amount where so many 

 elements have to enter into the calculation and so much variation must 

 occur, according to the greater or less amount of aliment taken and 

 numerous other circumstances; 3 but that so large a quantity passes as 

 is stated by these observers, almost exceeds belief. 



3. PHYSIOLOGY OF CHYLOSIS. 



The facts referred to, regarding the anatomical arrangement of the 

 chyliferous radicles and mesenteric glands, will sufficiently account 

 for the obscurity of our views on many points of chylosis. The diffi- 

 culty in detecting the extremities of the chyliferous radicles has been 

 the source of different hypotheses ; and, according as the view of open 

 mouths or of spongy gelatinous tissue has been embraced, the chyle has 

 been supposed to enter immediately into the vessels, or to be received 

 through the medium of this tissue ; or, again, to pass through the 

 parietes of the vessels by imbibition. Let it be borne in mind, how- 

 ever, that the action of absorption is seen only by the "mind's eye;" 

 and that chyle does not seem to exist any where but in the chyliferous 

 vessels. In the small intestine, we see a chymous mass, possessing all 

 the properties we have described, but containing nothing resembling 

 true chyle; whilst, in the smallest lacteal that can be detected, it 

 always possesses the same essential properties. Between this impercep- 

 tible portion of the vessel, then, and its commencement, including the 

 latter, the elaboration must have been effected. MM. Leuret and 

 Lassaigne, 4 indeed, affirm, that they have detected chyle in the chymous 

 mass within the intestine, by the aid of the microscope. They state, 

 that globules appeared in it similar to those that are contained in chyle, 

 and that their dissemination amongst so many foreign matters alone 

 prevents their union in perceptible fibrils. These globules they regard 



1 Op. citat., ii. 183. 



2 Muller's Archiv. fur Anat., s. 46, Berlin, 1845. 



3 Prof. Th. L. W. Bischoff, Muller's Archiv., s. 125, Berlin, 1846. 



* Recherches Physiologiques et Chimiques, pour servir a 1'Histoire de la Digestion, p. 60, 

 Paris, 1825. 



