COMPOSITION OF CHYLE 263 



clot and serum. The serum is quite variable in quantity and is never 

 clear. Its milkiness does not depend entirely on the presence of parti- 

 cles of emulsified fat, and it is not rendered transparent by ether. It 

 contains, also, leucocytes and granular matter. 



Observations have been made with reference to the influence of dif- 

 ferent kinds of food on the chyle ; but these have not been followed by 

 any definite results that can be applied to the human subject. It is 

 usual to find the chyle liquid in the lacteals and in the thoracic duct for 

 many hours after death ; but it soon coagulates after exposure to the air. 

 Although the entire lacteal system is sometimes found, in the human 

 subject and in the inferior animals, filled with opaque coagulated chyle, 

 the liquid does not often coagulate in the vessels. 



Composition of Chyle. Analyses of the milky liquid taken from the 

 thoracic duct during full digestion by no means represent the composi- 

 tion of pure chyle ; and it is only by collecting the liquid from the mesen- 

 teric lacteals, that it can be obtained without a large admixture of lymph. 

 In the human subject, it is rare even to have an opportunity to take the 

 contents of the thoracic duct in cases of sudden death during digestion ; 

 and in most of the inferior animals, it is difficult to obtain liquid from 

 the small lacteals in quantity sufficient for accurate analysis. 



In the analysis by Rees, the liquid was taken from the thoracic duct 

 of a vigorous man, a little more than an hour after his execution by hang- 

 ing. The subject was apparently in perfect health up to the moment of 

 death. The evening before, he ate two ounces (56.7 grams) of bread 

 and four ounces (113.4 grams) of meat. At seven A.M., one hour before 

 execution, he took two cups of tea and a piece of toast ; and he drank a 

 glass of wine just before mounting the scaffold. When the dissection 

 was made, the body was yet warm, although the weather was quite cold. 

 The thoracic duct was rapidly exposed and divided, and about six flui- 

 drachms (22.2 cubic centimeters) of milky chyle were collected. The 

 liquid was neutral and had a specific gravity of 1024. The following 

 was its approximate composition : 



COMPOSITION OF HUMAN CHYLE FROM THE THORACIC DUCT 



Water 94-8 



Albumin, with traces of fibrinous matter . . .- . . . . 70.8 



Aqueous extractive ....... 5-6 



Alcholic extractive . . . . 5- 2 



Alkaline chlorides, carbonates and sulphates, with traces of alkaline 



phosphates, and oxides of iron . . . 4-4 



Fatty matters ' J 9- 2 



1000. o 



