24 WONDERS OF ORGANIC LIFE. 



within itself. The absorbents or lymphatics, as 

 we have said, enter the receptacle for the chyle, 

 and the lymph and chyle become mingled toge- 

 ther. The thoracic duct, in its course upwards, 

 receives other lymphatic vessels, the contents 

 of which also mingle with the chyle, and are 

 poured into the venous blood near the heart. 

 This commixed fluid immediately passes into 

 the right cavities of the heart, and is thence 

 sent to travel through the minute vessels which 

 ramify on the cellular tissue of the lungs. 

 Here the chyle undergoes its last conversion — 

 it becomes living arterial blood. What changes 

 the chyle undergoes in the mesenteric glands is 

 not understood, nor is the use of the pancreatic 

 juice satisfactorily ascertained. According to 

 Dr. Prout, this fluid contains albumen, and a 

 curdy substance ; it is slightly acid, and holds 

 in solution matters of a saline nature. 



If the reader asks how the process which we 

 have briefly detailed can turn particles of ali- 

 ment, dead matter, into living blood, Ave can 

 only answer, that we do not know ; we know 

 that such is the process ; the rest is shrouded 

 in mystery. 



Here, perhaps, as a sequel to the general 

 details which we have attempted to sketch, is 

 the most fitting place for some observations 

 respecting a principle in the composition of 

 animal and vegetable organization, and which 

 exists alike in albumen, casein, (cheese,) horn, 

 animal fibrin, and vegetable fibrin, discovered 

 in 1838 by Mulder, the Dutch chemist, who 



