LYMPHATIC AND LACTEAL SYSTEM 
The lymph is said to coagulate more readily 
after passing through the lymphatic glands, and 
the nearer it approaches the thoracic duct. I 
have not found this to be the case in so marked 
a degree as has been stated. I have collected 
lymph from the lymphatics of the intestines 
before they reached the glands, and from va- 
rious parts of the body in which no glands are 
situated, and have invariably found the fluid to 
coagulate spontaneously, although if in small 
quantity it may shortly return to the liquid 
State. 
The fluid contained in the lacteal vessels in 
Mammalia is of a white colour like milk, and 
is called chyle ; it has a marked saline taste, is 
slightly alkaline, and has no perceptible odour. 
I have now before me several specimens of 
recent chyle collected carefully from the lacteal 
vessels, before they reach the glands, from the 
glands themselves, from the vasa efferentia of 
the glands, and from the thoracic duct. These 
specimens were taken from a donkey killed for 
the purpose, seven hours after a full meal of oats 
and beans. About half a drachm was obtained 
from the vasa inferentia, and a drachm from the 
mesenteric glands themselves in watch-glasses; 
from the vasa efferentia about three drachms 
were procured in a test-tube, and from the 
thoracie duct in a phial nearly an ounce. All 
were of a pure mi!k-white colour except that 
from the thoracic duct, which had a slight pink 
tint. They all jellied spontaneously in from 
five to ten minutes; that from the vasa infe- 
rentia again liquified in about half an hour, 
and remained in this state; on other occasions 
I have known it retain its solidity, I have also 
seen the chyle from the glands, and from the 
vasa efferentia, return to the liquid state after 
having been coagulated for a short period. I 
haye observed the same occurrence in lymph 
before and after it had traversed a gland. In 
_ about half an hour, with the exception already 
noticed, these specimens of chyle separated 
_ into a kind of serum and clot, the latter form- 
_ ing by far the greater portion, at least four-fifths 
of the whole. This clot, however, ou being 
broken up and pressed, contracted to one- 
twentieth part of its former bulk; both the 
_ serum and the clot retaining their white colour. 
_ In the specimen obtained from the thoracic 
_ duct the pink tint was confined to the clot, and 
the serum was whitish or whey-coloured. It 
ought here to be stated that chyle, before it has 
reached the receptaculum, will not always se- 
parate into a fluid and solid portion, but will 
remain of the consistency of a soft white jelly, 
from which, however, by breaking it up, a white 
fluid may be obtained. 
I find great error and confusion in the 
descriptions hitherto given of the microsco- 
pical appearances of the chyle. Miiller and 
_ Breschet both state, that the white colour of 
the chyle depends upon its globules, which 
they then proceed to describe; they both 
quote Prevost and Dumas as estimating the 
diameter of the chyle globule at 1-7199th of 
an inch, or about half that of the blood glo- 
bule in man. Miiller says that in the cat he 
_ finds them of the same size as the blood cor- 
221 
uscules, and in the rabbit some of them were 
arger; in the calf, the dog, and the goat he 
found them much smaller than the blood cor- 
puscules of the same animal. Breschet, This 
work on the lymphatic system, published in 
1836, acknowledges the unsatisfactory state of 
our knowledge with respect to the globules of 
the chyle and lymph. Tiedemann and Gmelin, 
in their elaborate work on digestion, distinctly 
state they consider the white colour of the chyle 
to depend upon fatty particles, which form a sort 
of emulsion with the serous portion of the 
chyle. Mr. Gulliver has given by far the most 
correct description of the microscopical appear- 
ances of the chyle that I have met with; he is 
the first who has noticed the extremely minute 
particles which constitute the characteristic 
microscopical appearance of the chyle, for the 
larger globules, noticed by most observers, are 
found also inthe lymph. Mr. Gulliver has not, 
however, corrected the statement of Miiller, Bre- 
schet, and others that the white colour of the 
chyle depends upon these larger globules; but 
I doubt not he would acquiesce with me in 
opinion that the white colouf depends alto- 
gether upon the more minute particles. With 
these preliminary remarks I shall proceed to 
describe the microscopic characters of the chyle 
from my own obervations. 
Every one is aware that the lacteals, when 
not conveying chyle, contain a transparent 
fluid not to be distinguished by the eye from 
the lymph of other parts of the system; to 
this fluid is added, during the digestion of 
a meal, myriads of extremely minute parti- 
cles, twenty or thirty times less in size than 
the lymph or blood globules of the same 
animal, and which can scarcely be distin- 
guished by aglass of less power than one- 
eighth of an inch focus, upon which un- 
doubtedly the white colour of the chyle de- 
pends; when these particles are very numerous, 
the chyle is perfectly white and opaque; when 
less so, it will be whey-coloured or semitrans- 
parent. These particles are peculiar to the 
chyle, and I have been in the habit, for the 
last two years, of calling them the chyle gra- 
nules, in contradistinction to the globules of 
different kinds which are also found in this 
fluid. The chyle granules, when allowed to 
dry on a piece of glass, measure from 1-20,000th 
to 1-10,000th of an inch in diameter, and are 
larger and more distinct in carnivorous than in 
graminivorous animals. The most remarkable 
peculiarity, which I believe I am the first to 
notice, of these chyle granules, is their con- 
tinual vibratory or oscillatory motions. On 
viewing under the microscope a drop of chyle 
taken from the lacteal of a carnivorous animal 
and placed between a piece of glass and 
tale, the motions of the chyle granules 
will be seen to be so constant and ceaseless 
that the observer would ai first sight be led to 
consider the chyle as a moving mass of restless 
animalcules; but on noticing the limited range, 
as well as the sameness, and apparent want of 
object, in these to and fro movements, he will 
probably feel inclined to attribute them to 
some unknown attraction and repulsion, influ- 
