Madame Young's Guide to Health / Her experience and practice for nearly forty years; a true family herbal, wherein is displayed the true properties and medical virtues of all the roots, herbs, &c., indigenous to the United States, and their combination in all the diseases the human body is heir to; also, an explanation of the human body, its liability to injuries through ignorance of its structure. Dedicated exclusively to her sex.

by Amelia Young

CHYLIFACTION.

Chylifaction, or the formation of chyle, is the next great step in the process of digestion. This takes place in the duodenum; the chyme from the stomach is let into the intestines little by little; a valve at the lower opening, or outlet of the stomach prevents it from passing any faster than it can be disposed of, in the formation of chyle. This fluid is a thin, milky liquid, extracted from the chyme, and then taken up by absorbent vessels, called lacteals; the chyme passes slowly through the duodenum, and, in doing so, becomes mixed with another fluid furnished from the pancreas, or sweetbread, and the bile from the liver; passing slowly through this large intestine, ample time is given for the lacteal to take up all that is valuable, to be carried into the circulation, for the nourishment and support of the system. This chyle, taken up by the lacteals, is directly converted into blood, and, in many of its characteristics, it very closely resembles blood. The process by which this conversion is carried on, is called absorption; that class of absorbent vessels called lacteals, are not only found in the first intestine, or duodenum, but are distributed along the small intestines, for the purpose, as before stated, of conducting the chyle in its appropriate course, for the formation of blood.