Amoeboid cella in intestinal absorption. 19 



which occupies the centre, and tliat they here for tlie most part be- 

 conie dissolved in the contained chyle'). 



The lymph-corpuscles as carriers of absorbed products. 



The lymph-corpuscles as fat-carriers. Since fat is the only 

 alimentary substance that can he quite easily detected after its absorp- 

 tion from the contents of the intestine, attention has been cMefly 

 directed towards the investigation of the path taken by the absorbed 

 fat particles. Very early in the coiirse of my own researches into 

 this question I was led to the conclusion that the lymph-corpuscles 

 are the carriers of fat to the lacteals, for the cells in question are 

 occupied by fat particles during absorption, nor do we as a rule, ex- 

 cept in the epithelium- cells and in the lacteal itself, find any fat 

 particles which are not included in the protoplasm of these corpuscles : 

 indeed as has been already pointed out, in certain cases fat may be 

 present only in the amoeboid cells and not in the epithelium cells at 

 all (flg. 6). In these cases we may assume that the fat globules 

 are directly absorbed by the leucocytes from the intestinal contents, 

 are carried between the epithelium cells to the corium, through this to 

 the lacteal and are flnally set free witliin this vessel by the Solution 

 and disintegration of the carrying cells. In this journey the fat 

 particles do not remain unaltered, for they are comparatively large 

 in the amoeboid cells which are nearest the surface, smaller in 

 those that are between the attached ends of the columnar cells, and 

 flnally reduced to a State of minute subdivision in the cells which are 

 traversing the tissue of the mucous membrane (flg. 4); so that when 

 set free in the chyle they form the extremely small particles which 

 were termed coUectively by Gulliver its "molecular base". 



The lymph-corpuscles as carriers of other alimentary 

 substances. If it is only regarding the fat of the food that we can 

 obtain positive evidence as to its transference by the agency of the 



') Schmidt-MüMheim has shown that the injection of peptones iuto the blood 

 causes the Solution of large numbers of the white corpuscles ; a fact which must 

 be bonie in mind in any further investigation regarding the cause of the Solution 

 uf the amoeboid cells in the chyle. 



2* 



