THE LEUCOCYTES IN ORGANIC FUNCTIONS. 721 



globules which show an active Browrdan movement, though 

 covered with a thin layer of protoplasm to prevent their run- 

 ning together as fat-drops are wont to do. 



"Lymph also contains fibrin/ 7 writes Professor Duval, "but 

 a fibrin which is slow to coagulate spontaneously; indeed, lymph 

 removed from the vessel begins, after a quarter of an hour or 

 so, to harden into a colorless jelly, from which a reticulated mass 

 soon becomes separated as does blood-fibrin undergoing coagu- 

 lation." The cause of this delay seems to us but a natural 

 result of the absence of both varieties of acidophile leucocytes, 

 while the slow coagulation is but a normal consequence of the 

 fact that the lymph is plasma which, though derived from the 

 blood, and deprived of neutrophile leucocytes, nevertheless con- 

 tains more or less fibrinogen. "More. or less" is applicable in 

 a double sense here, for lymph taken from the lymphatics of 

 the extremities, for instance, coagulates more rapidly than that 

 taken from some vessels of the trunk. Lymph also contains 

 serum-albumin and serum-globulin in reduced quantity, and 

 relatively very small proportions of urea, neutral fats, and 

 sugar, as compared to the blood. Such is not the case, however, 

 as regards inorganic salts, which are present in the lymph and 

 blood in similar proportions. 



What is the nature of the process through which fats are 

 taken up from the intestine and their itinerary in the blood- 

 stream until they are used for the elaboration of basophile 

 granules? 



Stewart, 59 referring to the nature of this process, says: 

 "The common view has long been that the greater part of the 

 fat escapes decomposition, and, after emulsification by the soaps 

 formed from the liberated fatty acids, is absorbed as neutral 

 fat by the epithelial cells covering the villi. If an animal is 

 killed during digestion of a fatty meal, these cells are found 

 to contain globules of different sizes, which stain black with 

 osmic acid, and dissolved out by ether, leaving vacuoles in the 

 cell-substance, and are therefore fat. It has always been diffi- 

 cult to explain how droplets of emulsified fat could get into 

 the interior of the epithelial cells, and yet it certainly passes 



69 Stewart: Loc. cit., p. 370. 



