ROSS ON THE FIBRIX OF THE BLOOD. 369 



* 



The pulp resulting from the digestion of food is chyme. That 

 portion of the chyme which is taken up by the lacteals is called 

 chyle — a fatty liquid. It meets the lymph — an albumenous liquid 

 collected from all parts of the body by the lymphatic system 

 before they are together carried into the venous system ; and it is 

 at this first contact of the two liquids that the primordial cells are 

 formed ; but: such cells may also be found in the chyle alone, inas- 

 much as it also contains albumenoid substances. 



Passing through the lungs the cells assume the red color which 

 is characteristic of arterial blood, and their nuclei are rapidly 

 developed into new cells, which in turn give birth to other cells, 

 which becoming freed constitute the fibrin of the blood, or protein 

 cells, the common basis of all organic structures. Such of these 

 cells as are not incorporated into the tissues within a certain period, 

 undergo an abnormal development and then constitute the white 

 corpuscles of the blood, which are morphologically identical with 

 the various epithelial cells, as also with the '' floating cells " of the 

 Qgg and embryo. The cells composing the vitellus are true protein 

 cells like those constituting the fibrin of the blood, and similarly 

 derived from a primordial or parent cell. 



In polyps, and the inferior orders of radiates, moUusks and 

 crustaceans, the nourishing fluid circulates in the form of chyme; 

 in the higher orders of these sub-kingdoms in the form of chyle; 

 and it is only in the vertebrates that blood properly so called is 

 found. Blood consists of a liquor composed of albumen and water, 

 containing various salts in solution, and in this liquid, floating as free 

 cells, the protein or fibrin cells so minute as to require to be mag- 

 nified 900 diameters, in order to be distinctly visible ; the red cells 

 or corpuscles, much larger in size and so numerous as to give color 

 to the mass, and the white corpuscles less in size than the red, and 

 comparatively very few in number. When the blood gives up its 

 protein cells to the tissues, the albumen and water remain, and this 

 last with its salts being eliminated by the perspiratory and other 

 glands, the albumen is taken up by the lymphatic glands and 

 carried back in the form of lymph to the general circulation for 

 further service. 



