FUNCTIONS OF THE INTESTINES. 



317 



thick, club-like, sometimes double, lymphatic vessel, which 

 stands upright and reaches almost to the inside of the tip of 

 the villus, its own blind apex almost touching the former. 

 Each lacteal represents the origin of a lymphatic vessel. This 

 is illustrated in the second figure. 



Lymph contains chyle derived from the intestines only 

 during intestinal digestion. At other times the fluid found 

 in the lacteal and neighboring structures is identical to that 



INTESTINAL VILLI; INJECTED LACTEALS IN THE 

 MIDDLE OF EACH VILLUS. (Cadiat.) 



found elsewhere in the organism. It is perhaps advisable to 

 emphasize the fact that lymph is very similar to blood-plasma, 

 and richer than this fluid, owing to the presence of leucocytes. 

 Indeed, it only differs from blood in the absence of red cor- 

 puscles. It undergoes coagulation and separates, as does 

 plasma, into serum and clot, the latter likewise containing 

 fibrin-globulins. It contains serum-globulin and serum-albu- 

 min in relative proportions similar to those in blood, though 

 in smaller quantity: a feature which accounts for its somewhat 



