

PROPERTIES AND COMPOSITION OF CHYLE. 301 



duct generally coagulates in a few minutes. The first portion of the fluid 

 collected from the human subject by Rees the chyle was collected in this 

 case in two portions coagulated in an hour. Received into an ordinary 

 glass vessel, the chyle generally separates more or less completely after coagu- 

 lation, into clot and serum. The serum is quite variable in quantity and is 

 never clear. Its milkiness does not depend entirely upon the presence of 

 particles of emulsified fat, and it is not rendered transparent by ether. It 

 contains, also, a number of leucocytes and organic granules. 



Observations have been made with reference to the influence of different 

 kinds of food upon the chyle ; but these have not been followed by any defi- 

 nite results that can be applied to the human subject. It is usual to find the 

 chyle fluid in the lacteals and in the thoracic duct for many hours after 

 death ; but it soon coagulates after exposure to the air. Although the entire 

 lacteal system is sometimes found, in the human subject and in the inferior 

 animals, filled with perfectly opaque, coagulated chyle, the fluid does not 

 often coagulate in the vessels. 



Composition of the Chyle. Analyses of the milky fluid taken from the 

 thoracic duct during full digestion by no means represent the composition of 

 pure chyle ; and it is only by collecting the fluid from the mesenteric lacteals, 

 that it can be obtained without a very large admixture of lymph. In the 

 human subject, it is rare even to have an opportunity of taking the fluid 

 from the thoracic duct in cases of sudden death during digestion ; and in 

 most of the inferior animals which have been operated upon, it is difficult to 

 obtain fluid from the small lacteals in quantity sufficient for accurate analy- 

 sis. In operating upon the ox, however, Colin has succeeded in collecting 

 pure chyle in considerable quantity. 



In the analysis by Rees, the fluid was taken from the thoracic duct of a. 

 vigorous man, a little more than an hour after his execution by hanging. 

 The subject was apparently in perfect health to the moment of his death. 

 The evening before, he ate two ounces (56'7 grammes) of bread and four 

 ounces (113-4 grammes) of meat. At seven A. M., precisely one hour before 

 death, he took two cups of tea and a piece of toast ; and he drank a glass of 

 wine just before mounting the scaffold. When the. dissection was made, the 

 body was yet warm, although the weather was quite cold. The thoracic 

 duct was rapidly exposed and divided, and about six fluidrachms (22'2 c. c.) 

 of milky chyle were collected. The fluid was neutral and had a specific 

 gravity of 1024. The following was its approximate composition : 



COMPOSITION OF HUMAN CHYLE FROM THE THORACIC DUCT. 



Water 904-8 



Albumen, with traces of fibrinous matter 70-8 



Aqueous extractive 5'6 



Alcoholic extractive, or osmazome 5'2 



Alkaline chlorides, carbonates and sulphates, with traces of alkaline phos- 

 phates and oxides of iron 4-4 



Fatty matters 9-2 



1,000-0 

 21 



