Also 7–8 in L. form lympha. [ad. L. lympha, altered spelling (due to pseudo-etym. association with Gr. νύμφη NYMPH) of *limpa (whence limpidus LIMPID), *lumpa; according to some scholars repr. a prehistoric *dumpa cognate with the Oscan Diumpais ‘Nymphis.’]
1. Pure water; water in general; a stream. Only poet. and rhetorical.
a. 1630. Roxb. Ball. (1871), I. 176. Here rurall gods and tripping Nymphs Did bath their corps in the pure lymphs And christal streams.
1791. E. Darwin, Bot. Gard., I. 117. The Naiad-Nymph, Who hides her fine form in the passing Lymph.
1843. Borrow, Bible in Spain, xlix. (1872), 279. In the middle of the court was a fountain well supplied with the crystal lymph.
1860. Ld. Lytton, Lucile, II. v. § 6. 17. Then … the lymph Was the dwelling divine of a white-footed nymph.
1885. R. Bridges, Eros & Psyche, Dec. xxix. Its [sc. a fountain’s] biting lymph may not be touch’d of man Or god, unless the Fates have so ordain’d.
fig. 1879. G. Meredith, Egoist, xvi. I. 302. It would be the pity of common sympathy, pure lymph of pity, as nearly disembodied as can be.
b. transf. (nonce-uses).
1784. Cowper, Task, III. 391. Sipping calm the fragrant lymph [sc. tea] Which neatly she prepares.
1878. W. T. Thornton, Word for Word fr. Horace, 136. Not on wings … shall I through aether’s lymph be borne.
† 2. Bot. A colorless fluid in plants; the sap.
1672–3. Grew, Anat. Plants, II. iii. (1682), 68. The Root of Dandelion being cut in November, seems to bleed both a Milk and a Lympha.
1784. Cowper, Task, VI. 136. That moved The pure and subtle lymph Through th’ imperceptible meand’ring veins Of leaf and flow’r.
1807. J. E. Smith, Phys. Bot., 67. The sap, or lymph, of most plants … appears to the sight and taste little else than water.
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 270. The juice of the fruit and the lymph of the stem of Musa are slightly astringent.
[1900. Jackson, Gloss. Bot. Terms, Lymph,… Grew’s term for sap.]
3. Phys. A colorless alkaline fluid, derived from various tissues and organs of the body, resembling blood but containing no red corpuscles.
1725. N. Robinson, Th. Physick, 59. The Pancreatic Juice, Lympha, and Bile are all fitted for their several Offices of Separation, Attenuation, and Dilution.
1793. J. Hunter, Treat. Blood, etc. (1794), 28. The coagulating lymph of the blood being common, probably to all animals, while the red particles are not.
1805. W. Saunders, Min. Waters, 446. The waters of Barege … dissolve … soap and animal lymph.
1830. R. Knox, Béclard’s Anat., 120. To coagulate like the coagulable lymph of the blood.
1898. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., V. 666. There is a continual outpouring of some of the contents of the capillaries into the tissues, which output, under the name of lymph, is roughly speaking liquor sanguinis deprived of much of its albumin.
4. a. The exudation from an inflamed tissue, from a sore, etc. b. In recent use often spec. for vaccine lymph (see VACCINE), the matter which is taken from the vesicles characteristic of cow-pox in a cow or calf or in a vaccinated human being, in order to be used in the operation of vaccination. Hence, in wider sense, any morbid matter taken from a person or animal suffering from a disease, in order to be employed in some prophylactic operation analogous to vaccination.
1800. Med. Jrnl., IV. 61. Several … tumours … discharged an acrid lymph.
1801. Ring, Cow-pox, I. 295. Medical men in general … think it [variolous matter] most active when it is a mere lymph, and inert as it becomes more opaque.
1810. Jenner, in Baron, Life (1838), II. 368. I send out a great deal of vaccine lymph on ivory points.
1866. J. Hutchinson, in J. R. Reynolds’ Syst. Med., I. 307. The rapid absorption of syphilitic lymph under mercurial influence.
1868. E. C. Seaton, Handbk. Vaccination, 109. Lymph should in every instance (where practicable) be inserted direct from arm to arm.
1873. Roberts, Handbk. Med., 53. Fibrinous Exudation, Lymph, Coagulable Lymph, Inflammatory exudation. An exudation escapes from the vessels in some forms of inflammation, which is coagulable, containing much fibrine, and to this the above names have been applied. Ibid., 194. The lymph does not deteriorate or lose its protective power after passing through any number of individuals.
1893. Dunglison’s Med. Dict., Koch’s lymph.
5. attrib. and Comb. a. simple attributive, as lymph-cell, -channel, -corpuscle, -follicle, -gland, -globule, -path, -sinus, -space, -stoma (pl. stomata), -stream, -vessel; b. objective, as lymph-absorption, -secretion; lymph-connective, -forming adjs.; lymph-canalicular a., of or pertaining to lymph-channels; lymph-cataract (see quot.); lymph-heart, one of a number of contractile muscular sacs which pump the lymph forward.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VI. 213. The hypothesis of lymph-formation and *lymph-absorption.
1874. Q. Jrnl. Microscop. Sci., XIV. 278. The *lymph-canalicular system of Recklinghausen.
1844. Hoblyn, Dict. Med. Terms, *Lymph-cataract, the most frequent form of spurious cataract; so named by Beer.
1873. T. H. Green, Introd. Pathol. (ed. 2), 203. Small spheroidal elements resembling. *lymph-cells.
1867. Quain’s Anat. (ed. 7), III. p. clxxxviii. The Lymph-sinus, or the *lymph-channel.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VI. 507. The *lymph-connective elements (spider-cells) … crowd upon the sheaths of the blood-vessels.
1872. Peaslee, Ovar. Tumours, 14. The *lymph-corpuscle, becomes a diagnostic element of the peritoneal fluid.
1873. T. H. Green, Introd. Pathol. (ed. 2), 264. The *lymph-follicles become enlarged from the multiplication of their elements.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., IV. 13. Increase of uric acid … may be an evidence of changes in *lymph-forming structures.
1856–8. W. Clark, Van der Hoeven’s Zool., I. 15. *Lymph-glands are found only in higher animals.
1822–34. Good’s Study Med. (ed. 4), I. 552. Globules void of colour, found floating in the serum, and which Sir Everard Home has called *lymph-globules.
1875. Huxley & Martin, Elem. Biol., 172. The Frog possesses two pairs of *lymph-hearts.
1878. Hoblyn, Dict. Med. Terms (ed. 10), *Lymph-scrotum, a peculiar disease of the scrotum, characterized by the formation of vesicles in the skin of the scrotum containing albuminous fluid, charged with corpuscles like those of the blood.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VII. 243. The whole question of *lymph secretion is at present in too unsettled a state to be discussed with much profit.
1867. *Lymph-sinus [see lymph-channel].
1874. Q. Jrnl. Microscop. Sci., XIV. 91. The *lymph spaces existing between the tendinous fibres of fasciæ.
1875. E. R. Lankester, ibid., XV. 260. Each fold contains between its lamellæ a lymph-space (part of the cœlom).
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VII. 542. A pleural effusion closes the *lymph-stomata of the pleura.
1873. Green, Introd. Path., 109. The transmission by the *lymph-stream of substances … derived from the malignant growth.
1874. Q. Jrnl. Microscop. Sci., XIV. 91. The *lymph vessels on the opposite side.
