CHYLE. 



Emily. What are the qualities of the fluid which it 

 secretes ? I should imagine that this might give some in- 

 sight into its use. 



Dr. B. If the spleen does secrete any particular 

 fluid, it is not carried away by any secretory duct. It 

 seems probable, from the latest experiments, that it is 

 connected with some other function than digestion. 



On being mixed with the bile and pancreatic juice, 

 the chyme acquires a more yellowish colour, its taste is 

 more bitter, and its sharp odour is essentially diminished. 

 Soon we find it distinguishable into two portions, one a 

 whitish, milky substance swimming on the surface, which 

 is called chyle, and the other, the greatest in quan- 

 tity, a yellow pulp. The latter consists of those portions 

 of the aliment that are incapable of assimilation, and are 

 destined to be removed from the system ; the former 

 has received a certain degree of animalization, and is 

 now ready for the other changes that are to prepare it 

 for nutrition. 



Emily. Truly, we have a strange and wonderful 

 machinery within us, that can thus work such a meta- 

 morphosis in the meat and bread that we eat. 



Dr. B. And the complete metamorphosis is not yet 

 accomplished ; many more changes still are to be 

 wrought upon it, before the materials of our food are 

 properly fitted for becoming component parts of the liv- 

 ing being. 



Emily. I had forgotten that the chyle was yet to be 

 disposed of; but I cannot possibly conceive what be- 

 comes of it. That it must be carried out of the intesti- 

 nal canal is very obvious, because, being destined to 

 replenish the natural losses of the system, it would be 

 useless for it to remain there. 



Dr. B. Certainly it would, and therefore we find 

 an admirable provision for transmitting the chyle as soon 

 as it is formed, from the intestinal canal into the blood 

 vessels. If an animal be examined in the course of an 



