SECT. 167.] 



MALPIGHIAN CORPUSCLES. 



361 



A part of a small artery, with a branch studded with Malpighian 

 corpuscles. From the dog. Magnified 10 times. 



found the corpuscles 116 times only in 960 bodies examined by 

 him, and that they Fig. 153. 



•were present with 

 less and less fre- 

 quency as the sub- 

 ject was older. In 

 children under two 

 years, they were 

 found in every se- 

 cond instance; from 

 two to ten years, in 

 every third case 

 only. Children dy- 

 ing between ten and 

 fourteen, presented 

 the corpuscles but 

 once in sixteen 

 times ; while persons above fourteen showed them only half as often 

 as this. In the bodies of such, also, as have died suddenly, from 

 accident or suicide, and in executed criminals (of which latter I 

 have examined four cases), they are, perhaps, never absent; and, 

 in such cases, they are just as numerous and distinct as in the 

 lower mammalia. 



In man and in animals, the size of the splenic corpuscles is 

 subject to certain variations, and has, hitherto, been mostly over- 

 estimated, because they had not been properly isolated. They 

 measure from T y to -*'", the average being \ m . It is very 

 possible that their size varies according to the condition of the 

 chylopoietic organs, the corpuscles being larger after the absorp- 

 tion of nourishment than at other times. In animals, however, 

 I can affirm with Echer, that they are frequently strongly marked 

 during fasting ; and no data exist to determine this point in man. 



The Malpighian corpuscles are imbedded in the red splenic sub- 

 stance, and can scarcely be completely separated from it. They 

 are always attached to an arterial twig, and are either sessile on 

 the side or at the bifurcation of a vessel, or attached by a stalk, 

 which is itself a small artery. Their number is very considerable, 

 and arterial twigs, of 0'02'" to 0'04'" in diameter, support five to 

 ten corpuscles. These present, when freed from the pulp, a beau- 

 tifully clustered appearance (fig. 153). It is estimated that every 

 cubic line, or line and a half, contains one of these corpuscles ; 

 and this appears to me to be rather below than above the truth. 



