27fi OF SANGUIFICATION. 



in blood drawn many hours after digestion. I myself 

 have witnessed this appearance in cases where the 

 blood too evidently bore an inflammatory disposition, 

 to use a common phrase ; but I am persuaded that no 

 inference can be hence deduced in regard to the healthy 

 state, which alone is the object of physiology. 



NOTE. 



The fluid collected from the thoracic duct separates like the 

 blood into a solid and a serous portion. If formed from vege- 

 table food, it is nearly transparent, may be kept weeks or even 

 months without putrefying, and affords a faintly pink coagulum. 

 If from animal food, it is white and opake, begins to putrefy in 

 a few days, affords an opake coagulum which acquires a more 

 marked pink hue by the influence of the atmosphere, and throws 

 upon its surface a white creamy substance. The former gives 

 three times as much carbon as the latter j but the latter being so 

 much richer gives much more carbonate of ammonia and heavy 

 fixed oil, when subjected to the destructive distillation.* Chyle 

 collected from lacteals is wliiter, coagulates less perfectly, and 

 does not acquire a red colour by exposure to the air,f so that 

 sanguification proceeds gradually, as the chyle passes towards 

 the left subclavian vein, — a circumstance already stated in the 

 last section, Note (E). The pink colour, acquired by the coa- 

 gulum of chyle when exposed to the atmosphere, shews the use 

 of the lungs in sanguification. 



Dr. Marcet has reason to believe that the apjwarance of creamy 

 matter floating in the serum of blood occurs most frequently 



• Dr. Marcet, Med. Ckir. Trans. Vol. vi. 



t riiiua/rs dr Chinue. T. lxXX. Ulkti Uixi. 



