300 ABSORPTION LYMPH AND CHYLE. 



as soon as absorption of alimentary matters begins, certain nutritive matters 

 are taken up in quantity by tbese vessels, and their contents are known under 

 the name of chyle. 



In the human subject and in carnivorous animals, the chyle, taken from 

 the lacteals near the intestine, Avhere it is nearly pure, or from the thoracic 

 duct, when it is mixed with lymph, is a white, opaque, milky fluid, of a 

 slightly saline taste and an odor which is said to resemble that of the semen. 

 The odor is also said to be characteristic of the animal from which the fluid 

 is taken ; although this is not very marked, except on the addition of a con- 

 centrated acid, the process employed by Barreul to develop the characteristic 

 odor in the fluids from different animals. Bouisson has found that the 

 peculiar odor of the dog was thus developed in fresh chyle taken from the 

 thoracic duct. 



The reaction of the chyle is either alkaline or neutral. Dalton noted an 

 alkaline reaction in the chyle of the goat and of the dog ; and a specimen of 

 chyle taken from a criminal immediately after execution, examined by Rees, 

 was neutral. Leuret and Lassaigne obtained the fluid from the receptaculum 

 chyli in a man that had died of cerebral inflammation, and found its reaction 

 to be alkaline. 



The specific gravity of the chyle is always less than that of the blood ; but 

 it is very variable and depends upon the quality of the food and particularly 

 upon the quantity of liquids ingested. Lassaigne found the specific gravity 

 of a specimen of pure chyle taken from the mesenteric lacteals of a bull to 

 be 1013, and the specific gravity of the specimen of human chyle examined 

 by Rees was 1024. 



The differences in the appearance of the chyle in different animals depend 

 chiefly upon the food. Colin found the chyle milky in the carnivora, espe- 

 cially after fats had been taken in quantity; while in dogs that were nour- 

 ished with articles containing but little fat, its appearance was hardly lac- 

 tescent. Tiedemann and Gmelin found the chyle almost transparent in 

 herbivora fed with hay or straw. They also observed that the chyle was 

 nearly transparent in dogs fed with liquid albumen, fibrin, gelatine, starch 

 and gluten ; while it was white in the same animals fed with milk, meat, 

 bones etc. 



It is impossible to give an accurate estimate of the entire quantity of 

 pure chyle taken up by the lacteal vessels. When it finds its way into the 

 thoracic duct, it is mingled immediately with all the lymph from the lower 

 extremities ; and the large quantities of fluid which have been collected from 

 this vessel by Colin and others give no idea of the quantity of chyle absorbed 

 from the intestinal canal. No attempt will be made, therefore, to give even 

 an approximate estimate of the absolute quantity of chyle ; but it is evident 

 that this is variable, depending upon the nature of the food and the quantity 

 of liquids ingested. 



Like the lymph, the chyle, when removed from the vessels, undergoes 

 coagulation. Different specimens of the fluid vary very much as regards the 

 rapidity with which coagulation takes place. The chyle from the thoracic 



