244 DIGESTION. [CHAP. xxv. 



them after a long fast. We select the following experiments in 

 illustration of this statement : 



Exp. 1. A cat was fed on horse-flesh, carefully freed from fat, 

 on the 7th of July, 1848. On the two subsequent days it was fed 

 on the whites of eggs, freed from yolk j and on the 10th, it 

 was fed on the whites of five eggs, at nine o'clock A.M. At 

 half-past one P.M., on the same day it was killed. The thoracic 

 duct was filled by a perfectly limpid chyle, which exhibited no 

 molecular base, a few chyle-corpuscles, and a few blood-corpuscles. 

 The lacteals were with difficulty visible in consequence of the 

 transparency of the fluid by which they were filled. The stomach 

 and duodenum contained pieces of softened albumen, as well as 

 a considerable quantity of a soft homogeneous jelly-like mass. 

 In the latter intestine, the villi were covered with epithelium, and 

 did not exhibit any appearance to indicate that they were the seat 

 of an active process of absorption. 



Exp. 2. A small healthy terrier was fed at nine A.M. with half 

 a pound of wheaten bread, having previously fasted twenty-four 

 hours ; it was killed at one o'clock on ttie same day. The thoracic 

 duct was filled with a clear fluid, which, when collected on a slip 

 of glass, exhibited a faintly reddish hue. Under the microscope, it 

 was found to exhibit numerous red blood-corpuscles, with a much 

 smaller number of white corpuscles, but more than the usual pro- 

 portion for blood. No molecules were perceptible. The fluid, 

 when collected in a watch-glass, coagulated in two minutes into 

 a firm clot. A small quantity of softened bread was found in 

 the stomach, and a still smaller quantity of the same bread very 

 much softened, liquid, diffused, and coloured by bile, was found 

 in the duodenum. In both, the contents were acid. The villi were 

 covered with epithelium, which adhered firmly to them, without 

 any great opacity of their interior, or other indication of activity of 

 function. On chemical examination by our friend, Mr. Lionel 

 Beale, junior, a highly competent analyst, the contents of the 

 stomach were found to consist of a small quantity of sugar, 

 with a good deal of starch, while in the duodenum sugar ex- 

 isted in great abundance, and the starch only in very minute 

 quantity. 



Exp. 3. A similar dog to the preceding was fed at the same 

 time with two ounces and a half of horse-flesh, and the same quan- 

 tity of beef-suet ; it was killed four hours and a half after having 

 been fed. The whole lacteal system was distended with a white 

 milky chyle, which, under the microscope showed a large quantity 



