360 TRABECULE AND MALPIGHIAN CORPUSCLES, [sect. 167. 



the whole organ. The spaces enclosed in the meshes of this 

 network are all connected with each other, and contain the red 

 splenic substance and the corpuscles. Although no one is exactly 

 the same as another, these spaces do possess a certain resemblance 

 to each other in form and size. The older anatomists regarded 

 them as regular cavities lined by a membrane, analogous to the 

 venous areolae of the corpora cavernosa penis. It is true that the 

 interstices of the splenic structure closely resemble these areolae in 

 the arrangement of the trabecules round them, but it is certain 

 that they have no limitary membrane of any kind ; this is best 

 proved on a section of the spleen after the pulp has been removed 

 by washing. Such a preparation also furnishes us with the best 

 means of studying the relations and connection of the trabecular. 

 They are seen to be altogether irregular in their mode of con- 

 nection with each other, and present no similarity to the ramifi- 

 cations of vessels. They are very variable in thickness. At the 

 spot where four or five, or more of these trabecular become united, 

 we usually meet with a flattened cylindrical nodule, resembling 

 a ganglion on a nerve; these are found more frequently towards 

 the outer surface of the organ than in the inner parts and at the 

 hilus, where the large vessels furnish a sufficient support to the 

 parenchyma, and such a provision for the firmer union of the 

 trabecular is, therefore, less required. 



The structure of the trabecular of the human spleen corresponds 

 entirely with that of the fibrous envelope, and both consist of con- 

 nective tissue, running in a longitudinal direction, with fine elastic 

 fibres. In animals, on the other hand, smooth muscular fibres, 

 having a longitudinal direction, are met with in the trabecular. 

 These were first exhibited by myself in 1846. In some animals 

 (pig, dog, cat), they are found in all the trabecular ; in others, as 

 the ox, they exist only in the smaller ones. Hlaseh and Crisp 

 consider them only the muscular fibres in the walls of the vessels ; 

 but this is positively an error. Particulars of their distribution 

 will be found in my Micros. Anat., ii. p. 256. 



§ 167. Malpighian Corpuscles. — The splenic corpuscles, Mal- 

 pighian corpuscles, or splenic vesicles, are white roundish cor- 

 puscles, which are imbedded in the red splenic substance, and are 

 connected with the smallest arteries. They are invariably recog- 

 nised easily in the fresh bodies of healthy subjects, but rarely, or 

 not all, in such as have died from disease, or after long abstinence. 

 This is the explanation of the circumstance that Von Hessling 



