302 LYMPH. 



Nasse, has been definitely established in horses' lymph by Geiger 

 and Schiossberger. 



Nasse found that horses 1 lymph was comparatively rich in 

 sulphuric acid, which existed there pre-formed : he calculated the 

 quantity of sulphate of potash at 0*0233^. 



Alkaline phosphates occur only in very small quantities in the 

 lymph. 



The earthy salts, with a little peroxide of iron (arising probably 

 from the presence of a few blood-corpuscles), were found by Nasse 

 to amount to only 0*03 l{f in horses' lymph. 



The quantity of water in the lymph appears to be very variable, 

 but never to be nearly so great as in the blood-plasma ; in human 

 lymph Marchand found 96'926^, and L'Heritier 92'436 of water; 

 in the lymph of horses the quantity has been found to vary from 

 92'5-g- (Lassaigne) to 98'37 (Geiger). 



Nasse has instituted an interesting comparison (based on direct 

 analyses) between the composition of the lymph and of the blood- 

 serum of the horse, from which it follows that the individual salts 

 stand to one another in precisely the same ratio in both fluids, 

 although their absolute quantity is very different in consequence 

 of the larger amount of water in the lymph. Besides the differences 

 in the amount of water in the two fluids (the water of the blood- 

 serum being 7*8^, and that of the lymph being 5'0^), there are 

 also considerable differences in the proportions in which the 

 mineral constituents stand to the organic matters in the two 

 fluids; while 100 parts of salts correspond to 1036 parts 

 of organic matters in the blood-serum, the ratio in the lymph 

 is as 100 to only 785 ; according to Marchand and Colberg, 

 human lymph contains inorganic and organic matters in almost 

 equal parts. 



It is hopeless at present to attempt to calculate the quantity of 

 lymph contained in the whole animal body, since we have no fixed 

 points of support to assist us in such a calculation. Even if the 

 lymph of different parts were not so variously constituted as from 

 certain facts and on theoretical grounds appears to be probably 

 the case, and if the rapidity of the lymph-current in the different 

 vessels (before and after the passage of the lymph through the 

 glands) were not so various, and, moreover, so dependent on 

 internal and external (that is to say, physical and chemico- 

 physiological) conditions, as has been shown by Noll,* we should 

 still be far less able to calculate the capacity of the lymphatics 

 * Zeitschr. f. rat. Med. Bd. 9, S. 5293. 



