. ABSORPTION OF FAT. Ill 



to me still more conclusive. I filled an endosmometer with a 

 very weak alkaline solution, and plunged it into the emul- 

 sion. The membrane employed was, as usual, ox bladder, 

 and the two liquids were at the temperature of -f 30 centig. 

 at the commencement of the experiment. Endosmose took 

 place; the emulsion passed into the alkaline solution; and 

 the liquid rose in the tube to the height of 30 millimeters 

 in a very short time. 



These physical phenomena, which, although they do not 

 explain all the peculiarities of the digestion of fatty sub- 

 stances, nevertheless contribute to render them less ob- 

 scure. The chyliferous vessels, which terminate in closed 



Fig. 7, 



Extremity of intestinal villus, seen at A, during absorption, and showing absorbent 

 cells and lacteal trunks, distended with chyle; at B, during interval of digestion, 

 showing peripheral network of lacteals, with granular germs of absorbent cells, as yet 

 undeveloped, lying between them. 



or blind extremities (en cul-de-sac,) and are enveloped by 

 intestinal mucus, are, especially in a fasting animal, rilled 

 with an alkaline liquid, very analogous- to lymph. After 

 digestion, particularly when the animal has been fed en 

 fatty substances, the liquid of the chyliferous vessels differs 

 from what it was previously, merely by the addition of fatty 

 corpuscles, which give it the milky appearance. It is na- 

 tural to suppose, that this chemical affinity, which produces 

 the milky liquid in the mixture of the alkaline solution and 

 oil, is also exerted through the membrane of the chyliferous 

 vessels, which certainly imbibes as much of the alkaline 



