author's abstract op this paper issued 

 dy the bibliographic service, november 17 



HISTOLOGICAL STUDY OF THE SPLEEN OF THE 

 RABBIT UNDER HEIGHTENED PHAGOCYTIC 



ACTIVITY 



WILLIAM H. F. ADDISON 



Anatomical Laboratory and the Department of Research Medicine, University of 



Pennsylvania, Philadelphia 



ONE PLATE (SIX FIGURES) 



The phagocytic reaction in the mammalian spleen has been 

 studied under various experimental conditions and from different 

 points of view. Histologically, the accumulated observations 

 show that the same cell types are not the active phagocytic 

 agents in all cases. Thus in some conditions it is found that 

 fixed cells, such as reticular and endothelial cells, are most active 

 (Heinz, '01; Cary, '15) while in other conditions free cells, such 

 as splenocytes, are the predominant phagocytic cell type (Muir, 

 '02). In other conditions, again, cells of both types take part 

 (Paton and Goodall, '03). These findings are to be correlated 

 with the well-recognized fact that phagocytic cells have a selective 

 action, some types reacting to one stimulus, some to another. 

 With the purpose of examining some of the conditions under 

 which the phagocytic cells of the spleen act, we have studied 

 this organ in one definite experimental procedure, paying special 

 attention to the histological character of the cells involved in 

 the reaction. 



The stimulus used has been the injection of washed pigeon 

 corpuscles into the circulation of the rabbit. Rapid destruction 

 of the foreign corpuscles ensues and, as an almost immediate 

 effect, is followed by the release of great numbers of mature and 

 immature blood-cells from the bone-marrow. Both the hemolyz- 

 ing blood of the pigeon and the bone-marrow cells of the rabbit, 

 being brought by the circulating blood to the spleen, are delayed 

 within the cavernous blood-channels of the pulp, and are there 

 exposed to the phagocytic action of the splenic cells. 



437 



THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ANATOMY, VOL. 26, NO. 3 



