STRUCTUEE OF THE SPLEEN. 



401 



■undergoes important changes in the passage ; in this respect resembling the . 

 Ijanph as it passes through the Ijanphatic glands. Two modifications which 

 are probably effected ia it may be here pointed out. In the fir.st place the 

 l^nnphoid tissue ensheathing the ai-teries, together with that composing the 

 JMaljiighian corpuscles, would appear, like the same tissue in the lymphatic glands 

 and other parts, to be the seat of the production of pale blood corpuscles. At the 

 circumference of this tissue, these may pass into the interstices of the pulj?, and 

 so get into the blood. It is found, in. fact, that the blood of the splenic rein is 

 extremely rich in pale corpuscles. In the second place, red blood-coi"puscles 

 would appear to be taken into the interior of the pulp-cells, then* colouring matter 

 being transfonned into pigment, which is then probably earned to the liver by 

 the splenic vein, to be eliminated with the bile (KoUiker). Splenic cells have, 

 in fact, been noticed, when examined on the wann stage, to take red corpuscles, 

 which were in contact with them, into their interior. 



Fig. 285. 



/./. 1^ 



Fig. 285. — Thin Section of Spleen-pulp, hiohlv magnified, showinq the Mode of 

 Origin op a Small Vein. Chromic acid Prepakation. 



V, the vein, filled with blood-corpuscles, which are in continuity with other.s, bl, 

 filling up the interstices of the retiform tissue of the pulp. At p the blood-corpuscles 

 have been omitted from the figure, and the branched cells are better seen ; w, wall of the 

 veiu. The small shaded bodies amongst the red blood-corpxiscles are pale corpuscles. 



The lymphatics of the spleen are described as forming two systems, a trahe- 

 ciiliir and a j^cri-va.scular. The vessels belonging to the foiiner run in the 

 trabeculai and are in communication with a superficial net-work in the capsule. 

 The peri-vascular take origin in the interstices of the lymphoid tissue which 

 ensheaths the smaller arteries, and fonns the Malpighian cor^Duscles ; they do 

 not, therefore, at first form distinct vessels. "When these are seen they commonly 

 run in pairs, one on either side of an artery, uniting over it by frequent 

 anastomoses, and sometimes partially or wholly enclosing it. At the hilus the 

 two sets of lymphatics joui and proceed along the gastrosplenic omentum to the 

 neighbouring lymphatic glands. 



The nerves, derived from the solai- plexus, suiTound and accompany tho 

 splenic artery and its branches. They have been traced by Eemak deeply into 

 the interior of the organ. 



The following works on the spleen may be referred to : — Gray, Stnicture and 

 Use of the Spleen, 1854 ; Busk and Huxley on the Malpighian Bodies, in the 

 Sydenham Society's translation of Kolliker's Histology ; also Huxley, in Micro. 

 Jour., ii., p. 74 ; Billroth, in Zeitschrift f. Wiss. Zoologie, xi ; W. Miiller, Ueber 

 d. fein. Ban der Milz, 1865, and in Strieker's Handbook ; Stieda, in Virch. 

 Arch., xxiv. ; Schweigger-Seidel, Virch. Arch, xxvii. ; Tomsa, Wiener Sitzungsb, 

 xlviii. ; Kyber, Arch. f. Mikr, Anat., vi. 



A-QL. Ii'. D D 



