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V. On the Chemical Analysis of the Contents of the Thoracic Duct in the Human Sub- 
ject. Bij G. Owen Rees, M.D . , F.G.S., Physician to the Northern Dispensary . 
Communicated hy P. M. Roget, M.D., Sec. R.S., &;c. 
Received February 3, — Read February 10, 1842. 
The contents of the thoracic duct in the human subject having never been obtained 
in sufficient quantity for the purposes of chemical analysis, I resolved to avail myself 
of an opportunity which lately presented itself in the execution of a criminal at the 
Old Bailey. 
Through the kindness of Messrs. Macmurdo and Holding, the medical officers of 
Newgate, and with the assistance of my friends Mr. Hilton and Mr. Samuel Lane, 
I was enabled to commence operating upon the body one hour and a quarter after 
death, and before it had become cold, although the thermometer stood considerably 
below 32° Fahr., and the body had been exposed on the scaffold during one hour. 
The subject was muscular and of the middle height, and the prisoner had not become 
emaciated during his confinement in jail. On the evening preceding his execution, 
he had partaken of some supper, consisting of about 2 oz. of bread and 4 oz. of meat ; 
and the next morning, he drank two cups of tea, and ate a piece of toast made from 
the quarter of a round of a quartern loaf, and about a quarter of an inch in thick- 
ness. This breakfast was taken at seven o’clock a.m., one hour before death. He 
swallowed a glass of wine just before mounting the scaffold. 
The contents of the posterior mediastinum having been previously included in a 
ligature from the left side, the thoracic duct was reached without much difficulty by 
raising the right lung, and dividing the pleura which forms the right boundary of the 
posterior mediastinum. The duct was easily found, being distended with chyle: it 
was seized immediately below the point at which it was intended to divide it. The 
operator detached it as much as possible from its cellular connexions, and holding it 
between the thumb and finger, it was divided while thus compressed. - The fingers 
and lower part of the duct were then well washed by pouring clean water over them 
in order to be certain that no serous secretion or blood might become mixed with the 
chyle. The divided extremity of the duct was next placed in a perfectly clean glass 
bottle, into which its liquor flowed freely ; its motion being facilitated by gently 
kneading the abdominal contents. In this manner nearly six fluid drachms of chyle 
were obtained, the physical characters of which were as follows : — It was of a milky 
hue, with a slight tinge of buff. Its consistence was much the same as that of milk. 
The latter portion which was obtained (four drachms being received in a first, and 
MDCCCXLII. 
M 
