346 CHYLE, LYMPH, TRANSUDATES AND EXUDATES. 



Lymph, like the plasma, contains seralbumin, ser globulins, fibrinogen, 

 and fibrin ferment. The two last-mentioned bodies occur only in very 

 small amounts; therefore the lymph coagulates slowly (but spontaneously) 

 and yields but little fibrin. Like other liquids poor in fibrin ferment, 

 lymph does not at once coagulate completely, but repeated coagula- 

 tions take place. 



i The extractive bodies seem to be the same as in plasma. Sugar (or 

 at least a reducing substance) is found in about the same quantity as in 

 the blood-serum, namely, about 1 p. m. The glycogen detected by DASTRE* 

 in the lymph occurs only in the leucocytes. According to ROHMANN and 

 BIAL, lymph contains a diastatic enzyme similar to that in blood-plasma, 

 and LUPINE 2 found that the chyle of a dog during digestion has great gly- 

 colytic activity. Lipases may also occur in lymph. The amount of urea 

 has been determined by WURTZ 3 as 0.12-0.28 p. m. The mineral bodies 

 appear to be the same as in plasma. 



fi As form-elements, leucocytes and in certain cases red blood-corpuscles 

 are common to both chyle and lymph. Chyle in fasting animals has the 

 appearance of lymph. After fatty food it is, on the contrary, milky, 

 due partly to small fat-globules, as in milk, and partly, indeed, mostly 

 to finely divided fat. The nature of the fat occurring in chyle depends 

 upon the kind of fat in the food. By far the greater part consists of 

 neutral fat, and even after feeding with large quantities of free fatty 

 acids, MUNK 4 found that the chyle contained chiefly neutral fat with 

 only small amounts of fatty acids or soaps. 



The gases of the entirely normal human lymph have not thus far been 

 investigated. The gases from dog-lymph contain, according to HAMMAR- 

 STEN, only traces of oxygen, and consist of 37.4-53.1 per cent C02 and 

 1.6 per cent N, calculated at C., and 760 mm. mercury. The chief mass 

 of the carbon dioxide of the lymph seems to be in firm chemical com- 

 bination. Comparative analyses of blood and lymph have shown that the 

 lymph contains more carbon dioxide than arterial, but less than venous 

 blood. The tension of the carbon dioxide of lymph is, according to 

 PFLUGER and STRASSBURG, S smaller than in venous, but greater than in 

 arterial, blood. 



The quantitative composition of the chyle must evidently be very 

 variable. The specific gravity varies between 1.007 and 1.043. As an 



1 Compt. rend, de soc. biol., 47, and Compt. Rend., 120; Arch, de Physiol. (5), 7. 



2 Rohmann and Bial, Pfliiger's Arch., 52, 53, and 55; Lepine, Compt. Rend., 110. 



3 Compt. Rend., 49. 



4 Virchow's Arch., 80 and 123. In regard to the analysis of the fat of chyle, see 

 Erben, Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 30. 



5 Hammarsten, Die Gase der Hundelymphe, Arbeiten aus d. physiol. Anstalt zu 

 Leipzig, 1871 ; Strassburg, Pfliiger's Archiv, 6. 



