200 “PROPERTIES OF CHYLE—SANGUIFICATION, 
through the glands, it is entirely destitute of that power of 
spontaneously coagulating, or clotting, which is so remarkable 
in blood: and when examined with a microscope, it is seen 
to present a number of oily globules of various sizes ; together 
with an immense number of very minute particles or mole- 
cules, which also seem of a fatty nature ; and to these last, 
whose diameter is between 1-24,000th and 1-36,000th of an~ 
inch, the milky whiteness which characterises chyle appears 
principally due. But the chyle drawn from the lacteals, after 
they have passed through the mesenteric glands, possesses the 
power of coagulating slightly ; hence it would seem that some 
of its albumen has undergone a transformation into fibrin 
($17). At the same time, a great increase is observed in 
the number of certain floating corpuscles, which are occa- 
sionally to be noticed in the first chyle, but which are very 
abundant in the fluid drawn from the glands and from the 
lacteals that have passed through them ; of these, which bear 
a strong resemblance to the colourless corpuscles of the blood 
(§ 234), the average diameter is about 1-4,600th of an inch.— 
By the time that the chyle reaches the central receptacle, its 
power of coagulating has still further increased ; so that its 
resemblance to blood, except in regard to colour, is much 
stronger. The proportion of fibrin and albumen which it 
contains, is much greater than that which existed in the first 
chyle, whilst the amount of oily matter is less. 
223. There can be little doubt that the change which the 
chyle undergoes in its passage through the lacteals, is partly 
due to the influence of the living walls of these vessels upon 
the fluid in contact with them, and partly to that of the 
colourless corpuscles which float in the fluid, and which form 
the principal constituents of the absorbent glands. The whole 
apparatus, indeed, may be looked upon as one great Assimi- 
lating Gland, having for its function to make blood out of 
erude nutriment ; provided-for in the higher Vertebrata by the 
convolution of the lacteals in the mesenteric glands, and in the . 
lower, by the simple extension of the vessels themselves. It is 
probable that, by being brought into very close neighbourhood 
with the blood in these glands, the chyle may be made to 
undergo some further change ; although, as each fluid is con- 
tained in its own tubes, which do not communicate, there can 
be no proper intermixture, | 
