FIBRIN OF THE CHYLE.
409
The serum of chyle is, however, rarely quite transparent, and always
contains globules; and Emmert,indeed,states that he saw red globules
in the water in which he agitated the red coagulum of chyle. Hew-
son also saw red corpuscules in the lymph of the spleen. Schultz
(■Syst. cl. Circulation) and Gurlt (Physiol. d. Hciiissäugethiere) state,
that they have found in the chyle, in addition to the proper globules
of that fluid, a few blood corpuscules: and hence infer that the red¬
dish colour of the chyle is due to the presence of such red particles,
of which they suppose the formation to begin in the chyle.
Fibrin of the chyle,—its source.—The firmness of the coagulum
of the chyle is different in different animals. The proportion of the
moist and dried coagulum in the horse, dog, and sheep, is stated as
follows by Tiedemann and Gmelin:—In 100 parts of chyle
of fresh eoagalum of dry coagalara
Of the horse, there were . . from 1.06 to 5.65 . . from 0.19 to 1.75
Of the dog .... 1.36 to 5.77 . . 0.17 to 6 56
Of the sheep .... 2.56 to 4 75 . . 0.24 to 0.52
The contents of the thoracic duct coagulated more perfectly when
the animals were killed while fasting. than when they had taken a
--' ' s
meal a short time previously: and the amount of fresh and dry
coagulum was greater in the former case. The dry coagulum of
the chyle of horses killed while fasting, amounted to from 1.00 to
1.75: that of horses which had lately taken food, from 0.19 to 0.78
per cent.
Tiedemann and Gmelin have moreover confirmed Emmery's ob¬
servation, that the proportion of fibrin in the chyle increases with
the progress of this fluid towards the thoracic duct. In a horse
which recently had a feed of oats, the chyle of the iacteals which had
» m
not passed through the mesenteric glands, did not coagulate; while
100 parts of the chyle of the Iacteals which had passed through
those glands, afforded 0.37 of dry coagulum; the same quantity of
the chyle of the thoracic duct 0.19, and the same quantity of the
lymph of the pelvis 0.13.
On the above facts Tiedemann and Gmelin ground their opinion
that the fibrin of the chyle is not derived immediately from the food,
but is formed in the blood and poured into the chyle and lymph by
the glands of the absorbent system, and by the spleen. And since
the chyle of the Iacteals that had passed through the mesenteric
glands contained more fibrin than the lymph of the absorbents of
the pelvis, they conclude that more fibrin is added to the chyle by
the mesenteric gjands than by the glands with which the lymphatics
of the pelvis communicate. However, the opinion that fibrin is thus
added to the chyle is as difficult to prove as the opposite hypothesis,
that the albumen of the chyle itself is converted into fibrin. To
determine the correctness of either, it would be necessary to ascer-
»
tain by a great number of experiments the quantity of solid ingre¬
dients, and particularly of albumen, in the serum of the fluid con¬
tained in diflerent parts of the absorbent system. If, for example, it
were found that the serum of the chyle of the thoracic duct after the
separation of the fibrin contained less albumen than the serum of
35