122 



ELEVENTH LECTURE. 



or the fragments of its corpse (p. 9). These are the blood- 

 corpuscle-containing cells of the spleen, occurrences which, 

 many years ago, caused so much racking of the brains, and 

 yet are, at present, so easy to interpret. Let us remember 

 the amoeba of our Fig. 3. 



We have remembered the dead : let us now return to the 

 living. What becomes of these finest blood currents after they 

 have successfully passed through the narrow mesh-work of 

 the pulp-tubes ? 



If our description has thus far been altogether comprehen- 

 sible, the answer follows of itself. These currents enter the 

 system of caverni, which Fig. 1 12 shows between the pulp- 

 tubes b and c. 



Let us pause for a moment. If we inject a rabbit's and a 

 Guinea-pig's spleen, or the organ of a new-born child, from 



the vena lienalis, it is a mere child's 

 play to instantly fill these reticular 

 spaces between the pulp-tubes 

 (Fig. 114, c). 



Thus — we return to the inverted 

 course once more — the lacunar 

 pulp current passes over into these 

 spaces of the pulp, into the " cav- 

 ernous veins " of Billroth. From 

 the latter, presenting many di- 

 versities, it is true, according to 

 the variety of animal, arise two 

 veins {d), enclosed in continuous 

 although very thin walls. 

 We said previously (p. 121) the spleen was a burying- place 

 of the red blood corpuscles. This requires no further discus- 

 sion now. On the other hand, however, the spleen forms a 

 generating focus of these elements, since it contributes lym- 

 phoid cells, the substitutes of those colored elements, to the 

 blood current. This also requires no further discussion ; cer- 

 tainly not, when we recall to mind the reticular surfaces of 

 the Malpighian corpuscles, and of the pulp-tubes, and when 



— d 



Fig. 114. — From the sheep's spleen 

 (double injection) ; a, reticular frame- 

 work of the pulp ; i, intermediate pulp 

 current ; c, its continuation into the ve- 

 nous roots, with incomplete walls ; d, 

 venous branch. 



