OF THE ABSORBENT VESSELS. 139 



a common pot de chambre, besides the urine which was above 

 it. He was in perfect health, not experiencing the slightest ill 

 effect." d 



Lymph from the hind extremities of a horse was found by Em- 

 mert to be white, with straw-coloured globules, to contain rather 

 less albumen, to coagulate more imperfectly, and become less 

 easily red on exposure to air, than the contents of the thoracic 

 duct. 6 



According to the recent observations of Tiedemann andGmelin, 

 the chyle has no fibrin, so as scarcely to coagulate, nor any red 

 particles, before it passes through the mesenteric glands ; but 

 immediately afterwards, and especially after it is mixed with the 

 lymph of the spleen, a fluid abounding with them and fibrin, 

 presents both, and still more copiously than the lymph of the 

 extremities. 



No fatty matter is discoverable in the lymph, nor indeed in the 

 chyle if the animal fasts or takes food destitute of fat. The fatty 

 matter is merely diffused through the chyle, and found even in 

 the blood after butter has been eaten. 



Ligature of the choledochus they found to augment the 

 quantity of fibrin and red particles, and to diminish that of fatty 

 matter in the chyle. 



Dr. Prout has just published his belief in something like the 

 opinion always entertained by Blumenbach, that the lymph, on 

 account of being a highly animalised fluid, contributes greatly to 

 the formation of blood. He goes farther than Blumenbach: 

 yet perhaps Blumenbach's opinion may, in reality, though not 



d Observat. Med. rariores, lib. iii. obs. 27. Dr. Charles Smith, of New Jersey, 

 relates an example of ascites in a boy twelve years of age, where the fluid accu- 

 mulated was of a chalky white colour, had pretty nearly the smell, taste, and 

 appearance of milk, and threw up good cream after standing a night. Between 

 seven and eight quarts of this were twice removed by tapping. Philos. Mag., 

 vol. ix. p. 168. 



Shenkius is generally thought a credulous collector of incredible cases, and 

 no doubt some of his histories as well as of his opinions are ridiculous. But 

 careful modern observation discovers facts precisely similar to the greater number 

 that he has collected. I might have doubted the history just related, more espe- 

 cially the good health of the patient, had not the case of the woman occurred to 

 me. For example, he gives some instances of black urine made by persons in 

 perfect health, and Dr. Marcet has published two such {Transactions of the 

 Medical and Chirurgical Society, vol. xii. ). Dr. Prout showed me a specimen of 

 urine from one of these, and a specimen of blue urine, containing indigo. 



e See also Vauquelin, Annaks de Chimie, t. Ixxxi. 181. 



