OF THE CHYLE. 347 



much diversity of sentiment respecting the structure of these 

 organs.* 



The absorbent vessels, in the different parts of the body, 

 generally contain fluids resembling those which are found in 

 those parts. Mr. Hewson opened the large absorbents in 

 many living animals of different kinds, and found that they 

 contained a transparent fluid, which coagulated when exposed 

 to the open air. 



The arrangement of these vessels resembles that of the veins 

 in several respects. Many of them are superficial ; but there 

 are also deep-seated absorbents which accompany the blood- 

 vessels. 



Of the Chyle. 



— Under this name we designate the fluid, carried by the 

 absorbents of the intestinal canal during digestion; in the 

 intervals of digestion, the trunks of the same vessels in the 

 mesentery are filled only with the ordinary lymph. These 

 vessels of the intestinal canal are called lacteals, in consequence 

 of their white appearance when distended with chyle. The 

 lymph proper, is a fluid taken up by the radicles of the general 

 lymphatic system, and is mixed with the chyle in the thoracic 

 duct. Chyle is limpid in birds, a little opaque in herbivorous 

 animals, and very opaque in the carnivorous, including man. 

 The opacity of the chyle, appears to depend upon the great 

 number of globules suspended in it, which appear to be found 

 in birds and all the mammalia, notwithstanding, the blood 

 globules are elliptical in birds, and flattened in man. (See vol. 

 ii. p. 238.) According to Miiller, the chyle globules are to be 

 found in the first radicles of the lacteals, as he saw them dis- 

 tinctly in the calf; this favors the opinion that they are not 

 formed in the vessels themselves, but are probably taken up in 



* Mr. Abernethy states, that the mesenteric gland of the whale consists of 

 large spherical bags, into which a number of the lacteals open. Numerous 

 blood-vessels are ramified on the surfaces of these cysts ; and injection passes 

 from them into the cyst. He also found cells in the glands of the absorbent 

 vessels, in the groin and the axilla of the horse. See Philosophical Transac- 

 tions, for 1796, Part I. 



