QUANTITY OF LYMPH AND CHYLE. 365 



part being, like the liquor sanguinis, diluted, but gradually 

 becoming more concentrated; and their corpuscles being 

 in process of development into red blood-corpuscles. Thus, 

 in quality, the lymph and chyle are adapted to replenish 

 the blood ; and their quantity, so far as it can be estimated, 

 appears ample for this purpose. In one of Magendie's 

 experiments, half an ounce of chyle was collected in five 

 minutes, from the thoracic duct of a middle-sized dog; 

 Collard de Martigny obtained nine grains of lymph, in ten 

 minutes, from the thoracic duct of a rabbit which had 

 taken no food for twenty-four hours; and Gieger, from 

 three to five pounds of lymph daily from the foot of a 

 horse, from whom the same quantity had been flowing 

 several years without injury to health. Bidder found, on 

 opening the thoracic duct in cats, immediately after death, 

 that the mingled lymph and chyle continued to flow from 

 one to six minutes ; and, from the quantity thus obtained, 

 he estimated that if the contents of the thoracic duct con- 

 tinued to move at the same rate, the quantity which would 

 pass into a cat's blood in twenty. four hours would be equal 

 to about one-sixth of the weight of the whole body. And, 

 since the estimated weight of the blood in cats is to the 

 weight of their bodies as 1:7, the quantity of lymph daily 

 traversing the thoracic duct, would appear to be about 

 equal to the quantity of blood at any time contained in the 

 animals. Schmidt's observations on foals have yielded 

 very similar results. By another series of experiments, 

 Bidder estimated that the quantity of lymph traversing 

 the thoracic duct of a dog in twenty-four hours, is about 

 equal to two-thirds of the blood in the body. If we take 

 these estimates, it will not follow from them that the whole 

 of an animal's blood is daily replaced by the development 

 of lymph and chyle ; for even if the quantity of lymph 

 and chyle daily formed be equal to that of the blood, the 

 solid contents of the blood will be much too great to be 

 replaced by those of the lymph and chyle. According to 



