This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1867 edition. Excerpt: ...this: what is the nature of the fluid which the lymphatic vessels transport? Is it Watery and of less density, or is it thick and of greater density, than the blood, plasma, or liquor sanguinis? ' If it were more dense than the liquor sanguinis, it could have no influence in augmenting the density of the blood which is returning in the veins to the heart; if less dense, on the contrary, in proportion to the excess of its water over that of the blood, will be its influence in causing condensation of 'this fluid in the veins, and in fitting them to drain the tissues through which they pass. Now the samples of human lymph, as well as of the lymph of healthy quadrupeds, which have been analyzed, have all been found of density greatly inferior to that of the blood 01' liquor sanguinis. In the lymph examined by Marchand and Colberg, which was obtained from an open lymphatic vessel upon the instep, the quantity of water amounted to 96'92 'in 100 parts. In that analyzed by Bergman, which was obtained from another subject under similar circumstances, the quantity of water was 96'1O in 100 parts. And in that examined by Dr G. O. Rees, which was-obtained from the abdominal lymphatics of a healthy donkey, the quantity of water was 96-'53 in the 100 parts, These results, obtained by diflerent chemists of acknowledged accuracy, at different times, agree very remarkably, and may be taken without limitation as correct. But the quantity of water which enters into the composition of the blood of man appears, from the multiplied analyses of M. Lecanu, to amount to no more than from 7T8 to 827 in the 100 parts. The lymph is therefore a much more attenuated fluid than the blood, and being so, the blood will be inspissated, and made apt to imbibe...