CHYME, lam, a pulpy mass into which food in the stomach is resolved by the action of the gastrid juice and by the contraction of the stomach. This mass is grayish in color and the previous texture or nature of the aliment can be no longer distinguished. It passes by the pylorus into the intestinal canal, where it is mixed with the pancreatic juice and the bile. The thinner parts of it are absorbed by the slender tubes termed The liquor thus absorbed, which is called (q.v.), is of a white color; it passes through the glands of the mesentery, then enters the thoracic duct and is conveyed by it into the blood at the junc tion of the left jugular with the left subclavian vein. Chyle is an opaque milky fluid, mild to the taste. By standing for some time one part of it coagulates; another portion is coagulated by heat. The chyle, after mixing with the lymph conveyed by the absorbent vessels; is received into the blood, which has returned from the extreme vessels before this passes to the heart. All traces of it are very soon lost in
the blood, as it mixes perfectly with that fluid. It is probable, however, that its nature is not immediately completely altered. The blood passing from the heart is conveyed to the lungs, where it circulates over a very, extensive sur face presented to the atmospheric air, with the intervention of a very thin membrane, which does not prevent their mutual action. During this circulation the blood loses a considerable quantity of carbon, part of which, it is probable, is derived from the imperfectly assimilated chyle, as this, originating in part from vege table matter, must contain carbon in larger proportion than even the blood itself. See DIGESTION ; LYMPH ; NUTRITION.