1786 



HUMAN ANATOMY. 



The suspensory ligament of the spleen is an inconstant fold belonging to the lieno- 

 phrenic ligament, extending from near the oesophageal opening in the diaphragm to 

 the top of the spleen. It contains connective tissue between its layers, which 

 connects a triangular retroperitoneal area of the spleen with the diaphragm. The 

 phreno-colic ligament is a shelf-like fold, derived from the greater omentum, stretched 

 with its free edge forward from the abdominal wall in the region of the eleventh 

 rib to the transverse colon so as to form the floor of a niche in which the spleen 

 rests. 



The Vessels. — The Arteries. — The splenic artery is a large, tortuous vessel, 

 a branch of the coeliac axis. It is remarkable not only for its large size in propor- 

 tion to the organ, but for the thickness of its walls. About an inch from the spleen 

 it breaks up into six or more branches which enter the hilum one above another, in 



Fig. 1509. 



Ensilorm cartilage 



Diaphragm 



Left lobe of liver 



CEsophagus 



Gastro-hepatic 

 omentum 



Lobe of Spigelius 



Inferior 

 vena cava 



Vena 

 azygos major 



Aorta 



Vena 

 azygos minor 



Diaphragm 



Lung 



ung 



Gastro-splenic omentum 

 Left half of frozen section across body at level of eleventh thoracic intervertebral disk ; under side of section. 



the main anterior to the veins, with which they travel along the fibrous walls of the 

 interior. No arterial branch has any anastomosis with the others. Soon after its 

 origin the splenic artery gives of^" a branch which runs above the main trunk, supplies 

 some twigs to the stomach, and, breaking up into smaller branches, enters the spleen 

 near the top.' 



The veins ramify in the spleen in company with the arteries, and leave it in 

 about the same number of branches, which unite to form the splenic vein behind and 

 below the artery. 



The lyjuphatics are chiefly deep ones emerging from the hilum, but there are 



^ Haberer: Archiv fiir Anat. und Phys., Anat. Abtheil., 1902. 



