260 ABSORPTION LYMPH AND CHYLE 



quantity of fatty matters. The table may be taken, however, as an 

 approximation of the average composition of the lymph of these animals 

 during the intervals of digestion. 



Analyses of human lymph show a larger proportion of solid con- 

 stituents than was found by Lassaigne in the lymph of the cow. This 

 excess is pretty uniformly distributed throughout all the constituents, 

 with the exception of the fatty matters and fibrin ; the former existing 

 largely in excess in the human lymph, while the latter is smaller in 

 quantity than in the lymph of the cow. 



The distinctive characters of the different constituents of the lymph 

 do not demand extended consideration, inasmuch as most of them have 

 already been treated of in connection with the blood. In comparing, 

 however, the composition of the lymph with that of the blood, the great 

 excess of solid constituents in the latter is at once apparent. 



In nearly all analyses the proteids have been found to be very much 

 less in quantity in lymph than in the blood. This usually is most 

 marked in regard to the fibrin-factors ; but as before stated, the propor- 

 tion of all these substances is variable. On account of this deficiency, 

 lymph is much inferior to the blood in coagulability ; and the coagulum, 

 when formed, is soft and friable. There does not appear, however, 

 to be any actual difference between the coagulating constituents of the 

 lymph and of the blood. Fatty matters usually have been found to be 

 more abundant in the lymph than in the blood ; but their proportion 

 is even more variable than that of the proteid constituents. Very little 

 is to be said concerning the ordinary inorganic constituents of the 

 lymph. It has been shown that nearly if not quite all the inorganic 

 matters, found in the blood are contained in lymph in varying propor- 

 tions. Some analyses have given a small quantity of iron. These facts 

 indicate a remarkable correspondence in composition between lymph 

 and blood. All the constituents of the blood, except the red corpuscles, 

 exist in lymph, the only difference being in their relative proportions. 

 In addition to the constituents of the lymph ordinarily given, the 

 presence of glucose, and more lately, the existence of a considerable 

 proportion of urea, have been demonstrated. It has not been ascer- 

 tained how the sugar contained in the lymph takes its origin. 



The lymph of the dog contains about forty parts per hundred in 

 volume of carbon dioxide, of which seventeen parts may be extracted 

 by the gas-pump and twenty-three parts, by acids. In addition, the 

 lymph contains a trace of oxygen and one or two parts of nitrogen. 



Corpuscular Elements of the Lymph. In every part of the lym- 

 phatic system, in addition to a few minute fatty granules, there are 

 found certain corpuscular elements known as lymph-corpuscles (leuco- 



