LYMPHATIC AND LACTEAL SYSTEM. 
quantity of lymph; the comparison therefore 
between chyle and lymph has never been fairly 
instituted. Regretting with others the defici- 
ency in our knowledge of the relative compo- 
sitions of these important fluids, which, though 
derived from such different sources, enter in 
combination the already circulating blood, I 
a some experiments, which need not 
ere be described in detail, for the purpose of 
ascertaining the quantity of chyle that might 
be procured from the vasa efferentia of the 
mesenteric glands, and found that by a little 
care and contrivance as much as half an ounce 
of perfectly pure chyle might be procured from 
a horse after a full meal. I now applied to 
Dr. G. O. Rees, well known to me as an able 
and zealous investigator of the too much 
neglected science of animal chemistry, and re- 
quested him to undertake the analysis of 
the unmixed chyle and lymph, and to institute 
the desired comparison between them. Dr. 
Rees kindly acquiesced in my proposal, and 
has published the result of his inquiry in one 
of the late numbers of the London Medical 
Gazette, from which I transcribe his analysis 
with some of his observations, the whole of 
which are well worthy of perusal. The fluids 
in question were procured from a donkey, 
killed seven hours after a full meal of oats and 
beans. 
Analysis of chyle and lymph before reaching 
the thoracic duct, by Dr. G. O. Rees— 
Chyle. Lymph. 
MON ae tess. .2ees 90237 .. 96°536 
Albuminous matter ...... 3°516 . 1-200 
Fibrinous matter ...... eo “Ooo .. O'420 
Animal extractive matter so- 2 ,, : 
luble in water and alcohol . O83: -. 0240 
Animal extractive matter so- ,. . 
luble in water only .... $§ Aes Soko 
Fatty matter............  3°601 .. a trace. 
Alkaline chloride, 
sulphate and carbo- 
Salts.< nate, with traces of }0°711 .. 0°585 
alkaline phosphate, 
oxide of iron .... 
100-000 100°00 
Dr. Rees describes the albuminous matter of 
chyle as possessing a dead-white colour, which 
he attributes to the admixture of a substance 
of a peculiar character, and upon which he 
conceives it probable that the white colour of 
the chyle depends. Will further investigation 
prove this peculiar substance to be derived from 
the chyle granule? or is the chyle granule 
formed of a combination of this substance with 
fatty matter ? 
This peculiar matter, Dr. Rees states, is 
readily obtained by agitating chyle with ether, 
when the mixture speedily separates into three 
distinct strata, the centre stratum being the 
substance in question; a similar matter, he 
observes, may be obtained from saliva by 
treating it in the same way. He found it to 
Teact as follows :— 
“ It was insoluble in alcohol, both hot and 
cold—insoluble in «ther—miscible with water, 
223 
and soluble in liquor potasse. When it had 
been dried on platinum foil, the addition of 
water made it pulpy, and it was found. gtill to 
be miscible with that fluid, from which, how- 
ever, it separated in flakes on the addition of 
diacetate of lead.” 
I have now examined each part of the lym- 
phatic system in detail, and on reviewing it 
as a whole, with the mind fully emancipated 
from the old erroneous views in physiology, 
and with a full conviction of the truth of the 
modern discoveries with respect to imbibition, 
endosmosis, and exosmosis, including venous 
absorption, as established by Magendie, Du- 
trochet, Segalas, Delille, and others, and ad- 
mitted by Miiller, Panizza, Fohmann, Lauth, 
Breschet, and all the modern investigators in 
this interesting and intricate field of inquiry, 
in which I regret not to be able to mention 
the name of one of our own countrymen since 
the time of Cruickshank, Hewson, and Sheldon 
—in bringing, I say, with our present improved 
state of knowledge in physics and physiology, 
the mind to bear upon the subject of the lym- 
phatic system, it appears to me that we are 
justified in materially modifying our opinions, 
both with respect to the functions exercised by 
this system of vessels, as well as with regard to 
its anatomical arrangement, which has been 
made to depend so much upon the precon- 
ceived physiological notions respecting it. Ff 
venture then to suggest that we are going too 
far in attributing to the lymphatic (since the 
‘veins also absorb) the important and universal 
function of interstitial absorption of the old 
material, previous to the deposition of the new, 
in the process of growth and nutrition; that it 
is without sufficient proof that we admit the 
ulcerative process to be carried on solely 
through the agency of the lymphatic system, 
or that the removal of all morbid growths or 
depositions is effected by the one order of ab- 
sorbent vessels unassisted by the other; and 
indeed that there would be nothing repugnant 
to sound reasoning, or at variance with the pre- 
sent improved state of our knowledge, were we 
to confine the functions of the lymphatic system 
more within the bounds ascribed to the lacteat 
vessels during the process of digestion, viz. to 
select and prepare nutritious materials for the 
purpose of sanguification, and to deposit them 
in the already circulating current. 
Descriptive anatomy.—I1 now proceed to 
describe the exact course which the lymphatic 
vessels take in the different parts of the body, 
the position and number of the absorbent 
glands which they traverse, and the precise 
direction, mode of commencement, and termi- 
nation of the two principal trunks, into which. 
they pour their contents. 
This part of our subject, the descriptive 
anatomy, neither requires nor admits of that 
rigid exactness which is absolutely necessary in 
tracing out the ramifications of the blood- 
vessels. In the first place, the surgeon, in the 
performance of his operations and in the treat- 
ment of wounds, scarcely finds it necessary to 
take the lymphatic vessels into consideration. 
To relieve the stricture in strangulated femoral 
