418 LIQUID PARTS OF ANIMALS. 



in 1825.* It was transparent, yellowish, without smell, and had 

 a saline taste. It coagulated spontaneously both in vacuo and 

 when exposed to the air. The coagulura was colourless fibrin. 

 Lassaigne states the constituents of lymph to be, 



Water, . U t . 925-00 



Fibrin, ..'. qi$jl ;i - : 3-30 

 Albumen, . . $ . 57 -36 



Common salt, chloride of potassium, 1 14.34 

 Soda, phosphate of lime, . J 



100-00 



This analysis, though imperfect, shows a close resemblance be- 

 tween lymph and chyle. 



Mr Brande in 1812 made a few observations on the lymph 

 taken from the thoracic duct of animals that had been kept for 

 twenty-four hours without food.f It was miscible with water in 

 every proportion, did not alter vegetable colours ; it was neither 

 coagulated by heat, nor acids, nor alcohol, but it was rendered 

 slightly turbid by the last reagent When evaporated to dry- 

 ness it leaves a very small residue, which changes violet-paper to 

 green. The ashes contained a minute portion of common salt, 

 but no iron. 



Mr Brande does not inform us from what animal this lymph 

 had been obtained. It differed in its characters from the lymph 

 examined by Reuss and Eminert, and by Lassaigne. 



In the winter of 1831-2, Professor Miiller of Bonn had an 

 opportunity of examining pure lymph. It issued from a small 

 wound in the back part of the foot of a young man. This wound 

 would not heal. When the back of the great toe behind the 

 wound was pressed, a quantity of clear liquid issued out, some- 

 times in a jet. This liquid was lymph. In about ten minutes 

 it deposited a coagulum of fibrin in a form resembling a spider's 

 web. The lymph, though clear and transparent, yet, when ex- 

 amined by the microscope, was found to contain numerous 

 colourless globules. They were smaller, and not so numerous as 

 the globules in the blood. Some of these globules united with 

 the coagulum ; but the greatest part remained suspended in the 

 liquid portion. 



* See Berzelius's Traite de Chimie, vii. 128. f Phil. Trans. 1812, p. 96. 



