THE CIRCULATING LIQUIDS OF THE BODY 



Chyle is merely the name given to the lymph coming from the 

 alimentary canal. The fat of the food is absorbed by the lym- 

 phatics, and during digestion the chyle is crowded with fine fatty 

 globules, which give it a milky appearance. There may also be in 

 chyle a few red blood-corpuscles, carried into the thoracic duct by a 

 back-flow from the veins into which it opens. Chyle clots like 

 ordinary lymph, the size of the clot varying according to the quantity 

 of fat present and enmeshed by the fibrin. Wounds of the thoracic 

 duct or of lymphatics opening into it are occasionally produced in 

 operations on the neck, and when these remain open chyle may be 

 readily collected. In samples obtained from a patient only a week 

 after the section of a branch of the duct during an operation for the 

 removal of tubercular glands, water constituted 928-90 parts in 

 1,000, total solids 71-10, inorganic solids 6-04, organic solids 65-06, 

 proteins 18-52, ether extract (fatty substances) 19-30 (Sollmann). 

 The following is the composition of a sample analyzed by Paton, and 

 obtained from a fistula of the thoracic duct in a man : 



Water 

 Solids 



Inorganic - 

 Organic - 

 Proteins 

 Fats - 

 Cholesterin 

 Lecithin 



953-4 

 46-6 



40-1 



13-7 

 24-06 

 0-6 

 0-36 



The quantity of chyle flowing from the fistula was estimated at as 

 much as 3 to 4 kilos per twenty-four hours, or nearly as much as the 

 whole of the blood. The flow has been calculated in various animals 

 at one- eighteenth to one-seventh of the body-weight in the twenty- 

 four hours. The quantity of lymph in the body is unknown, but it 

 must be very great perhaps two or three times that of the blood. 



Allied to tissue-lymph, but not identical with it, are the fluids 

 present in health in very small amount in such serous cavities as the 

 pericardium. The synovial fluid of the joints differs from lymph 

 especially in containing a small amount of a mucin-like substance. 



The aqueous humour, and still more the cerebro-spinal fluid, are 

 characterized by a marked deficiency in solids, especially protein. 

 In the following table (from Spiro) the differences in the composition 

 of lymph and allied fluids from different parts of the body are illus- 

 trated. 



