160 LYMPHATIC SYSTEM. 



But although from these experiments I am convinced that 

 the lymph in these cavities and vessels of a healthy animal 

 will always jelly on being exposed to the air (LXX), yet I have 

 likewise observed that the strength of that jelly is different in 

 different animals. In geese these fluids jelly sooner than in 

 dogs, and in the same animals the jelly differs in the different 

 circumstances of health ; in most of the dogs which I exa- 

 mined, the contents of the lymphatics formed a strong jelly, but 

 in a dog which I had fed eight days with bread and water, 

 and that rather sparingly, the lymph formed a very weak jelly; 

 and in young geese, these fluids are later in jellying than in 

 such as are full grown. I have observed the same of the fluid 

 contained in the pericardium and abdomen of other animals, 

 which fluid, when in a small quantity, always formed a strong 

 jelly, but when more copious, and the animal more feeble, the 

 jelly was thinner ; and in dropsical cases, it is well known that 

 the fluid let out of these cavities is not observed to jelly on being 

 exposed to the air, as it does in animals iii health ; but in some 

 cases it is found to coagulate by heat, like the serum of the blood, 

 and in others it only becomes a little turbid when boiled, owing 

 to the coagulable matter being in very small proportion to the 

 water. 



Although this lymph becomes more watery in a weak state 

 of the animal, it 'is less watery and more coagulable in some 

 diseases. 



But, what is a more curious fact, in those cases where I 

 have compared the fluid contained in the abdomen and peri- 

 cardium with that contained in their lymphatic vessels, of ani- 

 mals in different states of health, I have always found them 

 agree with one another in the degree of coherence of the jelly 

 which they formed. For, when the animal was in perfect 

 health, the lymph from the cavity of the pericardium, abdomen, 

 and pleura formed a strong jelly, and that in the lymphatics of 

 the neck and extremities was equally firm. When the animal 

 was reduced, as in the dog fed eight days on bread and water, 

 or when the goose was very young, then the jelly, formed by 

 the fluid collected in these cavities, was weak, and that formed 

 by the lymph in the lymphatic vessels was likewise weak in 



(LXX.) See Note LXIX. 



