THE LYMPH AND THE CHYLE. 5 



portion: the solid matter consists of fibrin, and contains 

 mixed up with its substance numerous granular and spherical 

 corpuscles, identical with the white globules of the blood ; 

 the serum is transparent, and contains but few of the cor- 

 puscles referred to. 



The chyle is a whitish, opaque, oleaginous, and thick fluid, 

 also manifesting an alkaline reaction, and containing, according 

 to the analysis of the gentleman above mentioned, 0*370 of 

 fibrin, and 3-601 of fatty matter.* 



There are present in it solid matters of several kinds. 



1st, Minute particles, described by Mr. Gulliverf, and which 

 constitute the " molecular base " of the chyle, imparting to it 

 colour and opacity : their size is estimated from the 3-5-^0 o to 

 the g-^oo f an inch in diameter; they are "remarkable'' 

 not only for their minuteness, but also for " their equal size, 

 their ready solubility in aether, and their unchangeableness 

 when subjected to the action of numerous other re-agents 

 which quickly affect the chyle globules." 



Mr. Gulliver has ascertained the interesting fact, that the 

 milky appearance occasionally presented by the blood is due to 

 the presence of the molecules of the chyle. This peculiar 

 appearance of the blood, which so many observers have 

 observed and commented upon, but of which none save Mr. 

 Gulliver have offered any satisfactory explanation, is noticed 

 to occur especially in young and well-fed animals during 

 digestion ; as also in the human subject, in certain patholo- 

 gical conditions, and sometimes in connexion with a gouty 

 diathesis. 



2nd, Granular Corpuscles, similar to those contained in 

 the lymph, and identical with the white globules of the 

 blood, but rather smaller than those, and which will be fully 

 and minutely described in the chapter on the Blood. Mr. 

 Gulliver, in his excellent article on the chyle, makes the 

 remark that the magnitude of the globules hardly differs, 



* See article " Lymphatic System " by Mr. Lane, in Cyclopaedia of 

 Anatomy and Physiology, April, 1841. 



f See Appendix to the translation of Gerber's General Anatomy, 

 p. 89. 



B 3 



