200 PROPERTIES OF CHYLE SANGUIFICATION. 



through the glands, it is entirely destitute of that power of 

 spontaneously coagulating, or dotting, 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 l-24,000th and l-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 

 crude 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. 



