298 CHYLE. 



This view is further supported by our observations (in vol. i. pp. 360- 

 364) regarding the origin and the physiological importance of the 

 fibrin. The soft, friable character of the chyle-fibrin has usually been 

 regarded as affording a proof that it is first produced from 

 albumen in the chyle, and that hence it appears there in such an 

 imperfectly formed state. But we have already remarked in refer- 

 ence to the albumen, that the idea of greater or less perfection in 

 regard to chemical substances is altogether inadmissible ; we can 

 only speak of an imperfect development when we treat of morpho- 

 logical objects. The reason why the fibrin in the chyle often 

 (although not always) separates in this peculiar form is in no way 

 connected with its being imperfectly elaborated from albumen ; it 

 solely depends on the character andchemical composition of the fluid 

 from which the separation takes place. In diseased blood and in 

 pathological exudations, we likewise observe that the fibrin 

 separates in the same loose, friable, and sometimes even diffluent 

 form as from the chyle ; indeed, we are able to induce this loose, 

 friable coagulation of the fibrin by artificial means, as, for instance, 

 by diluting the plasma with water, by the addition of alkalies, &c. 

 On these grounds, it seems far more probable that the fibrin of 

 the chyle is due to the blood-plasma and lymph which have been 

 absorbed into the lacteals, than that perfectly formed albumen 

 should be here oxidised into fibrin. 



With regard to the other constituents of the chyle, they are 

 already formed in the chyme, and pass unchanged into the lacteals ; 

 it is singular that sugar, which I only found in such very small 

 quantity in portal blood, is also only present in extremely small 

 quantity, or is altogether absent, in chyle. This circumstance may be, 

 in some degree, explained by the consideration that the conversion 

 of starch into sugar in the intestine usually proceeds only very 

 slowly, and that hence only very small quantities enter the lacteals 

 and blood-vessels. 



We have already noticed the development of the morphological 

 elements of the chyle within the lacteals, in our remarks on the origin 

 of the colourless corpuscles (see p. 273). 



It has been maintained by several of our leading authorities, 

 that haematin occurs in solution in the chyle-serum, and that 

 hence it must be formed in the chyle ; but independently of the 

 circumstance that a similar relation to that in the case of the fibrin 

 may also hold good here, that is to say, that it may owe its origin 

 to the blood-cells of the splenic lymphatics, it cannot have been 

 possible for these chemists, with the aids at their command, to 



