Volume 1

Animal chemistry with reference to the physiology and pathology of man / by J. Franz Simon ; translated and edited by George E. Day.

  • Johann Franz Simon
Date:
1845
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Animal chemistry with reference to the physiology and pathology of man / by J. Franz Simon ; translated and edited by George E. Day. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

    377/430 (page 353)
    It yielded no microscopic indications of urea. Nasse compared the lymph with the serum from the blood of a healthy horse, and found a remarkable coincidence in the salts of the two fluids: Alkaline chlorides Serum. 4-055 Lymph. 4-123 Alkaline carbonates' *. M30 1-135 Alkaline sulphates 0-311 0-233 Alkaline phosphates 0-115 0-120 5-G11 5-611 The lymph, therefore, is a dilute serum, and the salts of the blood which make their escape along with the colourless liquor sanguinis from the capillaries, either return again in the same proportions to each other as they were secreted, into the capil- laries, or, which is most probable, they only penetrate into the lymphatic vessels. Besides, there being more water in the lymph than in the serum (in the ratio of 950 to 922) the two fluids differ in the ratio of their solid constituents to the salts; in the lymph, the salts amount to 11 ’22, and in the serum to 9-65§ of the solid residue. It is probably this circumstance that causes the much greater viscidity of the serum, which is by no means solely dependent on the larger quantity of albumen in solution.] All investigations with respect to the motion of the lymph in the absorbents, and to the origin and formation of the lymph- corpuscles, have hitherto been comparatively fruitless. Since the primitive cells of the tissues are now regarded as organized individuals possessing self-dependent powers of selecting their own nutriment, and of discharging the function of secretion, we can no longer refer the passage of the lymph into the ter- minal points of the absorbents to mere physical endosmosis and exosmosis. I do not believe that we can altogether satisfactorily refer the motion of the lymph to a vis a tergo. Whether the lymph is propelled by a progressive contraction of the absorbent vessels, as is maintained by some physiologists, is uncertain; thus much, however, is undoubted, that there are numerous valves in the interior of the lymphatics to prevent the regur- gitation of their fluid contents. From Weber’s observations, it appears that in the tadpole the motion of the lymph is from 10 to 20 times slower than that of the blood. 23 1 The oleate of soda is calculated as a carbonate.