90 Prof. E. A. Schafer. The Proteids of the Chyle [Jan. 22, 



or otherwise incorporated with their protoplasm must also be set free. 

 In this way the fatty particles which they contain during absorption 

 of a meal containing fat become released and suspended in the chyle, 

 and it is probable that amyloid matters are also in part thus conveyed 

 to that fluid. 



The cause of the solution of the immigrated leucocytes in the chyle 

 of the commencing lacteals is not easily discovered, but it is not diffi- 

 cult to imagine more than one way in which it might be brought 

 about. It is known that a solution of peptones when added to the 

 blood or lymph, produces disintegration and solution of many of the 

 white corpuscles. And it is by no means unlikely that peptones 

 which have passed by diffusion into the lacteals may produce a 

 similar effect upon the immigrated amoeboid cells. Moreover, after 

 the blood is drawn many of the white corpuscles undergo solution in 

 the plasma in consequence of changes in its physical or chemical 

 condition which are inappreciable to the most delicate tests. And an 

 increase of alkalinity in the blood which fails to produce any change 

 whatever in the easily influenced coloured corpuscles will speedily 

 produce the disintegration of most of the colourless cells. 



As to the origin of these immigrant cells, it may be regarded as 

 certain that they have passed inwards from the epithelium. Leu- 

 cocytes are constantly seen, often in considerable number, between 

 the epithelium -cells of the villi (where they may even lie close to the 

 free surface), and also between the fixed ends of the epithelium- eel Is 

 and the basement membrane, as well as in the tissue of the mucous 

 membrane itself. In fat-absorption all these leucocytes, as well as 

 those which have passed into the lacteals, contain fatty particles, and 

 these particles are not found elsewhere in the tissue of the mucous 

 membrane. Since there is no continuity of the protoplasm of the 

 lymph- cells one with another, the fat-particles in those which are 

 more deeply seated must have been carried along by the amoeboid 

 movements of the cells which contain the fat. In this case, then, it 

 seems scarcely possible to come to any other conclusion than that the 

 fatty particles are taken up by the leucocytes from the epithelium- 

 cells, and perhaps in part directly from the intestinal cavity, are 

 conveyed to the lacteal, and there become set free by the breaking 

 down of the carrying cell. 



The presence of the fat thus serves to trace the course of the 

 leucocytes in the villi. But there is no reason to believe that their 

 course is at all different even in the absence of fat, for they are still 

 seen between the epithelium-cells, and they still pass into the lacteals. 

 It is fair, therefore, to assume that they play precisely the same part 

 whatever the nature of the aliment. 



A further question as to the origin of the leucocytes involves the 

 explanation of the production of a constant succession to take the 



