Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Physiological chemistry (Volume 2). Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
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![We have already noticed the development of the morphological ele- ments of the chyle within the lacteals, in our remarks on the origin of the colorless corpuscles (see p. 642 of first volume). It has been maintained by several of our leading authorities, that hcematin occurs in solution in the chyle-serum, and that hence it must be formed in the chyle ; but independently of the circumstance that a similar relation to that in the case of the fibrin may also hold good here, that is to say, that it may owe its origin to the blood-cells of the splenic lymphatics, it cannot have been possible for these chemists, with the aids at their command, to decide with certainty whether the htematin that was found, did not belong to the red corpuscles of the chyle. At all events, I have been unable to detect any dissolved hsematin in the chyle-serum from the thoracic duct in horses, which is most commonly of a red or cinnamon color, and holds in suspension true hsematin, con- taining blood-corpuscles ; if, however, decomposition has commenced in the chyle, hsematin will then be found in the plasma in consequence of the disintegration of the blood-corpuscles. LYMPH. The lymph forms a colorless or yellowish fluid, which is only red if blood-corpuscles happen to be mixed with it; it is sometimes transparent, sometimes slightly turbid or opalescent, of a faintly saline taste and mawkish animal odor; its reaction is usually alkaline ; it coagulates in from four to twenty minutes after its discharge from the lymphatics; it then forms a gelatinous, trembling, colorless coagulum, which gradually contracts more firmly, and encloses a large number of the so-called lymph-corpuscles; in relation to the serum this coagulum usually occu- pies only a very small space. Besides fat-globules and nucleus-like formations, we especially notice amongst the morphological elements the true lymph-corpuscles which, however, do not essentially differ from mucus- and pus-corpuscles. In lymph that has been carefully collected, we only find blood-corpuscles when the fluid has been obtained from the lymphatics of the spleen or from animals that have been starved to death (II. Nasse).1 There are many difficulties in the way of our obtaining pure lymph; it is sufficient to mention that, except in the very largest animals, it is often extremely difficult to find and dissect the lymphatics, and that even in the most favorable cases we cannot avoid an admixture of blood and fat, on cutting into the vessel and allowing its contents to discharge themselves. Hence recourse has generally been had to accidental cases, and lymph has been analyzed which escaped spontaneously in conse- quence of a wound or from a true lymphatic tumor. By the method described by J. Miiller,2 we can in a short time obtain from frogs a very considerable quantity of lymph, which, however, usually contains a slight » Handworterb. der Physiol. Bd. 2, S. 363-410. 2 Handb. der Physiol, des Menschen. 4 Aufl. Bd. 1, S. 203 [or English translation, 2d Ed., toI. 1, p. 278].](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21136300_0027.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
