296 ABSORPTION LYMPH AND CHYLE. 



involved, is identical with the coagulation of the blood, in which the leuco- 

 cytes play an important part. According to Colin, the fluid collected 

 from the thoracic duct in the large ruminants coagulates at the end of 

 five, ten or twelve minutes, and sets into a mass having exactly the form 

 of the vessel in which it is contained. The clot is tolerably consistent, but 

 there is never any spontaneous separation of serum (Colin). This may be 

 the fact with regard to the lymph and the chyle of the large ruminants, 

 but in the observations of Dalton, who operated upon dogs and goats, after a 

 few hours' exposure, the clot contracted to about half its original size, pre- 

 cisely like coagulated blood, expressing a considerable quantity of serum. In 

 one instance, in the dog, the volume of serum, after twenty-four hours of re- 

 pose, was about twice that of the contracted clot. 



Although many analyses have been made of lymph from the human sub- 

 ject, the conditions under which the fluid has been obtained render it proba- 

 ble that in the majority of instances it was not entirely normal. It will be 

 necessary, therefore, to compare these analyses with observations made upon 

 the lymph of the inferior animals ; as in the latter, this fluid has been col- 

 lected under conditions which leave no doubt as to its normal character. In 

 the experiments of Colin especially, the fluids taken from the thoracic duct 

 during the intervals of digestion undoubtedly represented the normal, mixed 

 lymph collected from nearly all parts of the body ; and the operative proced- 

 ure in the large ruminants is so simple as to produce little if any general dis- 

 turbance. The following is an analysis by Lassaigne of specimens of lymph 

 collected by Colin from the thoracic duct of a cow, under the most favorable 

 conditions : 



COMPOSITION OF LYMPH FROM A COW. 



Water 964-0 



Fibrin 09 



Albumen 28'0 



Fatty matter 0'4 



Sodium chloride 5'0 



Sodium carbonate, sodium phosphate and sodium sulphate 1'2 



Calcium phosphate 0-5 



1,000-0 



The proportions given in the table are by no means invariable, the differ- 

 ences in coagulability indicating differences in the proportion of fibrin-fac- 

 tors, and the degree of lactescence showing great variations in the 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. 



The analysis of human lymph which seems to be the most reliable, and 

 in which the fluid was apparently pure and normal, is that of Gubler and 

 Quevenne. The lymph in this case was collected by Desjardins from a 

 female who suffered from a varicose dilatation of the lymphatic vessels in the 

 anterior and superior portion of the left thigh. These vessels occasionally 

 ruptured, and the lymph could then be obtained in considerable quantity. 



