3 o6 



PROPERTIES OF CHYLE AND LYMPH. 



capsule contracts energetically, it must compress the gland like a sponge, and the direction in 

 which the fluid moves is regulated by the position and arrangement of the valves. 



f 



Fig. 222. 

 Part of a lymphatic gland. A, vas afferens ; B, B, lymph-paths ; a, a, trabecule seen on 

 e( lg e 5 / /> follicular strand from the medulla ; x, x, its adenoid reticulum ; b, its blood- 

 vessels ; o, o, narrow-meshed part limiting the follicular strands from the lymph-path. 



Chemistry. In addition to the constituents of lymph, the following chemical substances 

 have been found in lymphatic glands : leucin and xanthin. 



198. PROPERTIES OF CHYLE AND LYMPH. Chyle and lymph are 



albuminous, colourless, clear juices, containing lymph-corpuscles, which are identical 

 with the colourless blood-corpuscles ( 9). In some places, e.g., in the lymphatics 

 of the spleen, especially in starving animals, and in the thoracic duct, a few coloured 

 blood-corpuscles have been found. The lymph-corpuscles are supplied to the lymph 

 and chyle from the lymphatic glands and the adenoid tissue. As to their source 

 see 200, 2. They also pass out of the blood-vessels and wander into the 

 lymphatics. As red blood-corpuscles have also been seen to pass out of the blood- 

 vessels, this explains the occasional presence of these corpuscles in some lymphatics; 

 but when the pressure within the veins is high, near the central orifice of the 

 thoracic duct, red blood-corpuscles may pass into the thoracic duct. But we are 

 not entitled to conclude from their pressure that lymph-cells form red blood- 

 corpuscles. In addition, the chyle contains numerous fatty granules, each sur- 

 rounded with an albuminous envelope. [Thus the chyle, in addition to the con- 

 stituents of the lymph, contaius, especially during digestion, a very large amount 

 of fat, in the form of the nnely-emulsionised fat of the food, which gives it its 

 characteristic white or milky appearance. During hunger, the fluid in the lac- 

 teals resembles ordinary lymph. The fine fat-granules constitute the so-called 

 u molecular basis " of the chyle.] 



