FORMATION OF LYMP,H. 333 



of lymphagogues on blood coagulation and liver activity (DELEZENNE 

 and others), for, according to GLEY, these bodies have at the same time a 

 lymphagogue action and an action upon the secretion of the glands, 

 We have no direct evidence of the action of the lymphagogues of the 

 first series upon the organs, but we know from KUSMINE'S work that 

 peptone, leech extract, and the extractives of the crab-muscles act directly 

 upon the liver-cells and bring about morphological changes. The con- 

 nection between organ activity and lymph formation has also been 

 shown upon muscles and glands by others besides the above-mentioned 

 investigators (HAMBURGER, BAINBRIDGE l ) . 



The extent of organ work certainly essentially influences the quan- 

 tity and properties of the lymph. Still from this we cannot draw any 

 positive conclusions as to whether the lymph formation is brought about 

 by physico-chemical processes alone or whether in this process a specific, 

 not closely definable secretory force is at work at the same time. In 

 regard to this much-disputed question attention must be called in the first 

 place to the fact that the important works of HEIDENHAIN, HAMBURGER, 

 LAZARUS-BARLOW, and others, as well as the investigations of ASHER and 

 GIES and of MENDEL and HOOKER 2 upon the lengthy post-mortem 

 lymph-flow, have shown that the older filtration hypothesis is untenable. 

 That the part played by filtration as compared with that of the osmotic 

 force is only very trivial has been conclusively shown by the adherents 

 of the physico-chemical theory of lymph formation. 



Several investigators (KoRANYl, STARLING, ROTH, ASHER, and others) 

 have clearly shown that the work in the glands and tissue-cells must cause 

 a difference in the osmotic pressure upon the two sides of the capillary 

 wall. That this is so follows from several circumstances, and especially 

 from the fact that, in disassimilation in the cells, bodies of high molecular 

 weight are split into a number of smaller molecules, which latter, either 

 directly, if they leave the cells and pass into the tissue-fluid, or indirectly, 

 when they remain in the cells, produce an increase in the osmotic tension 

 within the cells, and in this way cause a taking up of water from the fluid, 

 and must therefore increase the osmotic pressure of the tissue-fluids. 

 As the cells can by synthesis build up highly complex constituents from 

 simple molecules, and- as the chief products of catabolism are carbon 

 dioxide and water, it is difficult to explain these intricate conditions. 

 Still, irrespective of whatever view, a change in one or the other direction 

 in the osmotic pressure upon both sides of the capillary wall must be 

 produced thereby. Whether this and other physico-chemical processes 



1 In regard to the works cited, as well as the literature upon lymph formation, see 

 Ellinger, " Die Bildung der Lymphe," Ergebnisse der Physiol., I, Abt. 1, 1902, and 

 Asher, Biochem. Centralbl., 4. 



2 Amer. Journ. of Physiol., 7. See also footnote 1. 



