782 



SPLEEN. 



rectly recognised it ; although Oesterlen, Re- 

 mak,and Handfield Jones had already detected 

 isolated facts having a reference to it. Oester- 

 len * was the first who found in the spleen of 

 frogs and toads, and with less distinctness in 

 that of the mammalia, yellow, rose-red, and 

 black minute corpuscles, but he was not in a 

 condition to explain them. Remak followed 

 next without greater success ; he found in 

 the spleen-pulp of the calf delicate trans- 

 parent vesicles, with 1 to 3 round, reddish- 

 yellow homogeneous bodies, the colour of 

 which approximated to that of the blood 

 corpuscles, but which were not so easily 

 swollen out by water. Finally, Handfield 

 Jones f discovered peculiar yellow corpuscles 

 in the spleen of different vertebrata. 



All these facts are placed in their true 

 light by my discovery that blood corpuscles 

 are almost constantly undergoing dissolution 

 in the spleen and disappearing. This will be 

 shown as follows : 



The red pulp of the spleen in man and 

 animals exhibits at different times a different 



Fig. 531. 



Cells containing blood corpuscles from the spleen of the 

 Rabbit, magnified 350 diameters. 



1, cells with one, three, four, and seven unchanged 

 blood corpuscles ; 2, cells with blood corpuscles 

 undergoing dissolution, and coloured in different 

 shades of brown or yellow (coloured granule cells) ; 

 3, cells with destroyed and decolorized blood 

 globules, larger or smaller, and with or without 

 granules ; 4, blood globules altered in colour, di- 

 minished or destroyed, either single or aggregated, 

 in small clumps. 

 In 1, 2 and 3 the following letters signify alike : 



a, more or less unchanged blood globules ; c, co- 

 lored granules begun by a diminution or destruc- 

 tion and alteration of colour in blood corpuscles ; 

 d, colourless granules produced by the discolor- 

 ation of c ; e, nuclei of the cells containing blood 

 corpuscles and their metamorphoses ; /, nueleoli 

 of these nuclei. 



colouring, or rather a different condition of 

 the blood corpuscles contained in it, and 



* Loc. cit. p. 52. 



t London Medical Gazette, Jan. 1847, pp. 140- 

 142. 



these, without any participation of the other 

 elements, affect its colour by the different 

 nature of their appearances. Thus, in a par- 

 ticular animal or in the human subject, this sub- 

 stance sometimes possesses a paler or more 

 greyish red, sometimes a brown, or even 

 black-red colour : in the latter case a quan- 

 tity of altered blood globules are present, the 

 appearances of which will hereafter be de- 

 scribed ; while in the former case, it may easily 

 be proved by the microscope that the red 

 colour depends on unaltered blood globules, 

 which are easily separated from the pulp by 

 pressure, and on the application of water give 

 off all their colour in a short space of time. In 

 other animals, the spleen has always about 

 the dark colour mentioned : nevertheless, 

 even in these cases, sometimes only un- 

 changed blood globules are seen ; sometimes 

 many of these are undergoing the most 

 manifold changes. 



Now these changes (figs. 53 1,532.) are very 

 extraordinary and peculiar, and in all animals 

 depend essentially upon these facts. The 

 blood globules first become at once smaller 

 and darker, while the elliptical corpuscles of 

 the lower vertebrata also become rounder : 

 then, in connection with some blood plasma, 

 they become aggregated into small round 

 heaps ; which heaps, by the appearance of an 

 interior nucleus and of an outer membrane, 

 experience a transition into spherical cells 

 containing blood corpuscles. These are from 

 5 to 15-1000ths of a line in size, and contain 

 from 1 to 20 blood corpuscles (figs. 531. 1. 

 532. 1.) During this time the blood cor- 

 puscles are continually diminishing in size, 

 and, assuming a golden yellow, brownish-red, 

 or dark colour, they undergo, either imme- 

 diately or after a previous dissolution, a com- 

 plete transition into pigment granules. So 

 that these cells themselves are changed into 

 pigmentary granule-cells ; and, finally, by a gra- 

 dual loss of colour of their granules, they form 

 themselves into completely colourless cells 

 (figs. 531. 3. 532. 4.). 



In respect of the more special circumstances 

 of this process, it is first necessary to con- 

 sider the commencement of the cells de- 

 scribed, and their changes, somewhat more in 

 detail. As regards the first of these, it is 

 certain that the cells containing the blood 

 corpuscles do not commence directly around 

 a nucleus, but by the circumposition of a 

 membrane around a heap of coagulated blood : 

 in the same way, to wit, that the so-called 

 inflammatory globules of Gluge in certain 

 cases change themselves to cells ; or that by 

 which the smaller globules of fission of the 

 yolk form themselves into vesicles. On the 

 other hand, it remains doubtful whether the 

 nuclei which are seen in these cells are there 

 before the formation of the membrane, or 

 whether they only begin as supplementary 

 to it. If the former be the case, one might 

 add that, in the extravasated or clotted blood 

 of the spleen, nuclei arise in consequence of 

 the commencing organization, each of which 

 then, like the nuclei in the fission of the yolk, 



