CHYLE, LYMPH, TRANSUDATIONS AND EXUDATIONS. 121 



by tying the veins (BIDDER, EMMINGHAUS, WEISS). The quantity 

 of lymph is also increased by strong active or passive muscular 

 movements (LESSER). On poisoning with curara the secretion of 

 lymph is increased (PuscnuTiN, LESSER), and the solids of the 

 lymph are also increased at the same time. 



II. Transudations and Exudations. 



The serous membranes are normally kept moistened by liquids 

 whose quantity is only sufficient in a few instances, as in the 

 pericardial cavity and the arachnoid membrane, for a complete 

 chemical analysis to be made of them. Under diseased conditions 

 an abundant transudation may take place from the blood into the 

 serous cavities, into the subcutaneous tissues, or under the epi- 

 dermis; and in this way pathological transudations are formed. 

 Such true transudations, which are similar to lymph, are generally 

 poor in form-elements and leucocytes, and yield only very little or 

 almost no fibrin, while the inflammatory transudations, the so-called 

 exudations, are generally rich in leucocytes and yield proportionally 

 more fibrin. As a rule, the richer a transudation is in leucocytes 

 the closer it stands to pus, while when it has a diminished quantity 

 of leucocytes it is more nearly like real transudations or lymph. 



It is ordinarily accepted that filtration is of the greatest im- 

 portance in the formation of transudations and exudations. The 

 facts coincide with this view, namely, that all these fluids contain 

 the salts and extractive bodies occurring in the blood-plasma in 

 about the same quantity as the blood-plasma, while the amount of 

 albumin is habitually smaller. While the different fluids belong- 

 ing to this group have about the same quantities of salts and 

 extractive bodies, they differ from each other chiefly in containing 

 differing quantities of albumin and form -elements, as well as 

 varying quantities of transformation and decomposition products 

 of these latter changed blood-coloring matters, cholesterin, etc., 

 etc. The largest quantity of albumin habitually occurs in in- 

 flammatory processes with changed permeability of the walls of 

 the vessels. The condition of the capillaries in the different 

 vascular regions affects the amount of albumin. For example, the 



