COMPOSITION OF LYMPH. 331 



Although numerous analyses have been made of lymph from the human subject, the 

 conditions under which the fluid has been obtained render it probable that, in the ma- 

 jority of instances, it was not entirely normal. It will be necessary, therefore, to com- 

 pare these analyses with observations made upon the lymph of the inferior animals ; as, 

 in the latter, this fluid has been collected under conditions which leave no doubt as to its 

 normal character. In the experiments of Colin especially, the fluids taken from the tho- 

 racic duct during the intervals of digestion undoubtedly represented the normal, mixed 

 lymph collected from nearly all parts of the body ; and the operative procedure in the 

 large ruminants is so simple as to produce little if any general disturbance. The follow- 

 ing is an analysis by Lassaigne of specimens of lymph collected by Colin from the thoracic 

 duct of a cow, under the most favorable conditions : 



Composition of Lymph from a Cow. 



Water 964*0 



Fibrin 0-9 



Albumen 28'0 



Fatty matter 0'4 



Chloride of sodium 5*0 



Carbonate, phosphate, and sulphate of soda 1*2 



Phosphate of lime 0*5 



1,000-0 



The proportions given in the table are by no means invariable, the differences in coag- 

 ulability indicating differences in the proportion of fibrin, and the degree of lactescence 

 showing great variations in the amount of fatty matters. The table may be taken, how- 

 ever, as a pretty close approximation of the average composition of the lymph of these 

 animals, during the intervals of digestion. 



The analysis of human lymph which seems to be the most reliable, and in which the 

 fluid was apparently pure and normal, is that of Gubler and Quevenne. The lymph, 

 in this case, was collected by Desjardins from a female who suffered from a varicose dila- 

 tation of the lymphatic vessels in the anterior and superior portion of the left thigh. 

 These vessels occasionally ruptured, and the lymph could then be obtained in consider- 

 able quantity. When an opening existed, the discharge of fluid could be arrested at will 

 by flexing the trunk upon the thigh. Gubler and Quevenne made elaborate analyses of 

 two different specimens of the fluid, with the following results : 



Composition of Human Lymph. 



First analysis. Second analysis. 



Water 939*87 934'77 



Fibrin 0'56 0'63 



Caseous matter (with earthy phosphates and traces of iron) 42'75 42*80 

 Fatty matter (in the second analysis, fusible at 102'3 Fahr.) 3'82 9'20 

 Hydro-alcoholic extract (containing sugar, and leaving, 

 after incineration, chloride of sodium, with the phos- 

 phate and the carbonate of soda) 13-00 12-60 



1,000-00 1,000-00 



The above analyses show a much larger proportion of solid constituents than was 

 found by Lassaigne in the lymph of the cow. This excess is pretty uniformly distributed 

 throughout all the constituents, with the exception of the fatty matters and fibrin; the 

 former existing largely in excess in the human lymph, especially in the second analysis, 

 while the latter is smaller in quantity than in the lymph of the cow. It is evident, how- 

 ever, from a comparison of the two analyses by Gubler and Quevenne, that the composi- 



