LYMPH. 147 



probably developed in the liquor muci, the latter containing their 

 nutritive elements; and are not secreted by the epithelial cells of the 

 mucous membrane, as is often asserted. The idea of Gluge, that 

 pus-corpuscles are merely free nuclei, can be adopted only by such 

 as still maintain that there is a wide distinction between them and 

 the mucus-corpuscle (p. 116). 



Functions of Gytoid Corpuscles. 



The colorless corpuscles of the blood are, with very valid reasons, 

 regarded, by T. Wharton Jones, as the parent cells of the red cor- 

 puscles ; and those of lymph and chyle are formed in these fluids 

 preliminarily to entering the blood. In the lymphatics of the 

 spleen, and in the thoracic duct, however, the cytoid corpuscles 

 appear already to have developed red blood- corpuscles, and which 

 enter the blood with the lymph and chyle. 



In exudations, the cytoid corpuscles constitute the basis of new 

 tissue, as is generally understood; while in mucus and pus they 

 appear to be developed in accordance with the law announced 

 above, but do not advance to any higher degree of organization. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE HISTOLOGICAL RELATIONS OF THE BLOOD, INCLUDING 

 LYMPH AND CHYLE. 



SINCE lymph and chyle are, in a physiological point of view, to 

 be regarded as blood in its primary stages of development, some 

 remarks on these fluids may appropriately precede the description, 

 of the blood itself. 



I. LYMPH. 



Lymph, as obtained from the lymphatic vessels, is a colorless or 

 slightly yellowish and somewhat opalescent fluid, of a saltish, insi- 

 pid taste, with an alkaline reaction. It coagulates in from four to 

 twenty minutes after being exposed to the air, forming a gelatinous, 

 colorless coagulum. 



