288 CHYLE. 



be obvious from the properties of its constituents which have been 

 already noticed, that the quantitative determination of the cells, 

 of the fibrin, and of the albumen in the chyle, must be very 

 uncertain, for we do not possess any means by which we can 

 retain the chyle-corpuscles and other molecules on the filter, or 

 which will enable us to compute their weight. These bodies are 

 distributed, together with the other molecules suspended in the 

 chyle, through the fibrin and albumen : and as the fibrin of the 

 chyle in general coagulates very imperfectly, the lymph-corpuscles 

 are less completely enclosed than in the fibrin of the blood, and 

 the molecules which remain suspended in the chyle are therefore 

 enclosed by the coagulated albumen. The sinking capacity of the 

 chyle-corpuscles is so inconsiderable, that the coagulated albumen 

 often reddens when exposed to the air, in consequence of the en- 

 closed pigment-containing cells, in the same manner as the 

 fibrin of the chyle. We can, therefore, only arrive at a moderately 

 approximate determination when, as in the case of the blood, we 

 abstract from the solid residue of the chyle-clot the fibrin deter- 

 mined by whipping. Hence, that which is supposed in ordinary 

 analyses to be fibrin, is very often scarcely half composed of this 

 substance, in reality consisting, in addition to these molecules, of 

 a very large quantity of fat which has been inadvertently suffered 

 to remain, as is frequently the case in analyses of the blood. The 

 precautionary rules which we have already laid down for the deter- 

 mination of albumen (vol. i. pp. 338-340), apply to the investigation 

 of chyle more, perhaps, than to that of any other animal fluid. 

 All the directions indicated for the determination of the fat in the 

 blood, refer with equal force to the chyle. The ordinary rules hold 

 good for the determination of the individual extracts and the various 

 mineral constituents. The older analyses, however, to which we 

 might look for assistance, are scarcely able to yield us any purely 

 physiological results, in consequence of their having been prosecuted 

 without the benefit of those aids to analysis which we possess in the 

 present day. The following observations give the results of the 

 quantitative investigations of other observers, in addition to my 

 own. 



The quantity of water in the chyle of horses fluctuates, 

 according to the investigations of different enquirers, between 91 

 and 96 ; this chyle contains, therefore, as a minimum 4, and as 

 a maximum 9 of solid constituents. Nasse found 90*5 7 S of water 

 in the chyle of a cat. 



The number of cells, cell-nuclei, and other molecules contained 



