74 



made very intricate by incorrect decimal cyphers 

 and erroneous calculations, seem to prove, what 

 experiments with vegetables further confirm, that 

 these earths must be capable of being composed 

 and decomposed, as occasion requires, by the 

 processes of organic chemistry. 



The Chyle, such as it occurs in the smaller in- 

 testines and in the first branches of the absorbent 

 vessels, is not distinctly known. From its colour 

 and its property of coagulating, whilst boiling, it 

 was compared to milk, and it was long supposed 

 that its principal constituent parts consisted of 

 sii^s ir of milk. This error is, however, now cor- 

 Xyjted. As soon as the chyle has come into the 

 thoracic duct, its milky colour gets more and 

 more faint in proportion as it is diluted with 

 lymph from other absorbing vessels. In general 

 it is a mixture of yellow and grey, is coagulated 

 in the air, and the coagulum assumes, by degrees, 

 a red colour. We have, consequently, reason to 

 consider the suspended white and grey matter in 

 the chyle as a colouring matter not yet com- 

 pleted, and which wants the contact of the air, in 

 order to be perfected. The experiment on the 

 chyle, by HALLE, EMMEIVT, and REUSS, all agree 



