_ with the chyle; even folids reduced to fine powder. 
DIGESTION. 
inteftine, is _ irritation of the aliment on the furface of 
the villous co 
Nature and Properties of Chyle. 
The rina | of colieéting 
flu'id from the laéteals, me the purpofe of examination an 
rig laa fe veh us inm ance its nature. 
It feems to continue fe ae ia animals of the fame {pe- 
cies, notwithftanding variations in their focd. Yet it varies 
i the different clafles of animals ; being of a milky white in 
a fufficient quantity of this 
B 
ACCT NA 
ties in various genera ; but, as faras our knowledge hitherto 
extends, : feems never to vary in man, however his food 
a be change 
In {pite of the importance of the refearch, which we 
fhould oe expe€ted to attract very eee the notice of the 
philofopher and chemift, our knowledge of the chyle is very 
limited, and its analytis has poterd been attempted in a regu- 
lar and f{cientific manner de a it as having the 
mi 
ptetig te Gf OF oily 3; as 
gulating after death ia 
or in parts where it has 
3 af{ciibe to it a cafeous and a buttery 
matter; an Seyagance of earth; fome even admit a 
vegetable farina, combined with animal oil and lymph. 
has alfo been reprefented as an oily matter, held in folution 
in water by means of a mucous principle. Dr. Fordyce’s 
defcription feems on the whole to be the moft complete, and 
we fall therefore pee it from his ** Treatife on Digef- 
tion.’ 
“ Tae chyle confifts of three parts; a part which i 
fluid and contained in the lacteals, but coagulates on 
Slob Whether the veffcls a&t upon it fo as to 
prevent it from 5 i 
iffulved in era nd flund ; 
is alive, and coagulates by death, in confequence of ex- 
travafation, is an argu hall here not en- 
rinto. The fecord part confifts of ch 1s co- 
agulable by heat, and in all its properties refembles the 
rum o blo (N. B. chyl eived into 
veffel feparates into thefe two parts ; the coagulum is thic 
firm oats on the e of the fluid portion 
hen animal is killed, while the chyle is pafling from 
the inteftines into the laCeals, thofe veflels are found filled. 
’ with a coagulated fluid; and in this wa Cruikfhank 
has been enabled to reprefent them in his ee on the ab- 
e third al coniifts of Sapa which render 
Thefe globules have been 
; but this has not been 
demonftrated that 
dugar is contained in the chyle, although it has been made 
very probable. The part coagulating on extravafation, the 
part agreeing with ferum in its qualities, and the globular 
part, which, in fome animals, but not in quadrupeds, exifts 
without giving whitenefs to the chyle, alone, or along with 
fugar, form the effential parts of the chyle. 
“<A great many fubftances may sates the laGteals along 
When 
indigo has been thrown into the intefline of a fheep, I have 
feen the chyle rendered quite blue ; now indigo is not foluble 
in water, but isa folid reduced into a very fine powder. So 
mufk gets into the chyle, giving it a ftrong {mell, and a great 
variety of other fubftances, of various colours, various talies, 
and various {mells, each of them giving colour, or tafe, or 
Vor, X& 
_~ 
fmell to the chyle. Neverthelefs, the laGteals feem to poffefs 
fome power of rejetion, fince green vitriol, either exhibited 
along with the food, or thrown into the intefline after the 
animal has been opened, while the chyle was formin 
fon 
with the food; or if an infufion of them Le in like tee 
thrown into the inteftine, when an animal is opened during 
the time that the chyle is en into the lacteals, do they 
give any colour upon a {olution of green vitriol being applied 
. the chyle ; the galls might be {uppofed to be digetted, but 
e green vitriol could not; neither can we well believe that 
Or gails could be paar ae when thrown into a portion o 
the j ane of a 
e to believe 
y 
certainly are in man we cannot well 
e ground any doctrine on green aide and galls qe being 
for 
“ The fubftances which I have above pointed out to be 
the effential parts of the chyle, are jaan acres in all 
their properties from farinaceous matter well as the 
greatelt part of the other (eases cables a food, A 
change confequently of the properties of fant ae employed 
for food mult take place in the organs of digeftion, fo as to 
convert the food into ,thefe different fe tances encaualy 
contained in the chyle.”’ 
e fame author obferves again, ‘that the ciieee parts 
~_confticting the chyle are exactly the fame, whether the 
matter of a mufcular fibre, or farinaceous matter be digefted ; 
for I have fed a dog with farinaceous matter, and another 
with mufcular fibre, and opening them both during the time 
that the chyle flowed through the laétcals, oe as much 
chyle as could be colle&ted from each ; on examination of 
their properties, they both Scie of the chee effential 
parts I have already enumerated, each of thefe parts in the 
one was perfectly sh ag far a s I ceuld contrive any ex- 
pe riment, > thofe of the other " 
oreover, in like eae tie oe of the part of 
chyle aoe o be different, w y one other of the 
aes fpecics of matter whi 
ufed; 
and cannot be : ditingifed from, the chyle of an ox or fheep, 
living wholiy on graf 
With all defereuce to the av athority of the refpe&ted phy- 
fiologift, whofe words have juft been quoted, we think fom 
of his opinions not yet fufficiently fupported by obferv on 
and experiment ; and we fhall venture to fubmit that the fol- 
lowing queftions are {till undecided, and form curious pro+ 
blems, towards the folution of nich the united labours of 
the chemift and phyfiologift might be very advantageoufly 
direGted, Does the nature of the Aas influence the cha- 
rafter and properties of chyle? chyle receive an im- 
preffion from the properties of fica i a for food ; 
aaa does it prefent, after its formation, any qualities analo- 
gous to thofe of the alimentary matters? Are not the dif- 
tin@ive characters of chyle decided by the characteriftic pro- 
perties of foods ? 
In refpe& to the tranf{miffion of colouring and odoraus 
poche to the chyle, different ftatements have been given 
by various phyfiolog:: ‘ts, Some reprefent, with Fordyce, 
that indigo will turn it blue, that yolk of egg, or beet root, 
4M will 
