254 ARTHUR WILLIAM MEYER 



The research has at any rate taught me the enormous difficulty of 

 judging of hypertrophy of a tissue which is distributed in different 

 parts of the body. In the case of the "hemal lymphatic" tissue the 

 difficulty is increased tenfold by the fact that not whole glands but 

 only parts of glands are formed of it, and so counting affords little 

 guidance. It was suggested to me that I should freeze the gland, then 

 cut out and weigh the red portions. This seemed feasible, but never- 

 theless on attempt was found too difficult and laborious to be practicable. 



It will be recalled that many of the older experimenters re- 

 ported enlargement of the Ijrmph nodes and several also enlarge- 

 ments of the thyroid after splenectomy. According to Vulpius 

 who found no enlargement up to five months in goats and rab- 

 bits, Tiedemann, Bardeleben, Gmelin, Mayer, Hyrtl, Domrich, 

 Fisher, Ludwig, Eberhard and Gerlach noticed such an enlarge- 

 ment in dogs and Hegar and Simon in three cats. Zesas reported 

 similar results for three rabbits, Winogradow* in three dogs, and 

 Warthin in goats and sheep. Many of these investigators also 

 reported changes in color and consistency as well as in cellular con- 

 tent and in many instances the enlargement was observed in all the 

 peripheral nodes as well. However, since most of these observers 

 did their experiments in the early days of asepsis Schiff's suggestion 

 that the changes noted in many cases by the early experimenters 

 were due to infection is undoubtedly correct. This suggestion 

 is also supported by the presence of enlargement in all the lymph 

 nodes, by the enlargement of the thyroid, by the large percent- 

 age of deaths and by the description of the microscopic appear- 

 ance of the nodes themselves by many of the earlier experi- 

 menters. However, Freytag (11) concluded that in the rabbit 

 which possesses no hemolymph nodes, splenectomy is followed 

 by reddening of the lymph nodes near the greater curvature of 

 the stomach and at the ileo-coecal junction in sixteen weeks. 

 Freytag also surmised that this reddening is probably preceded 

 by a swelling of the nodes since the superficial lymph nodes show 

 this reaction and adds that red lymph nodes which are developed 

 from 'preformed Anlagen' can be produced (?) decidedly earlier 

 — within four weeks — by irritation, from bleeding. 



^ Winogradow's percentages are wholly unconvincing for reasons obvious to 

 anyone who examines his article. 



