en. xxv.] 



THE SPLEEN 



333 



The spleen-pulp, which is of a dark red or reddish-brown colour, 

 is composed chiefly of cells, imbedded in a network formed of fibres, 

 and the branchings of large nucleated cells. The network so formed is 

 thus very like a coarse kind of retiform tissue. Some of the cells in the 

 meshes of the network are granular corpuscles resembling the lymph- 



FIG. 277. Section of injected dog's spleen, c, Capsule ; tr, trabeculse ; m, two Malpighian bodies with 

 numerous small arteries and capillaries ; a, artery ; I, lymphoid tissue, consisting of closely packed 

 lymphoid cells supported by very delicate retiform tissue ; a light space unoccupied by cells is seen 

 all round the trabeculae, which corresponds to the "lymph-path " in lymphatic glands. (Schofleld.) 



corpuscles, both in general appearance and in being able to perform 

 amoeboid movements; others are red blood-corpuscles of normal 

 appearance or variously changed; while there are also large cells 

 containing either a pigment allied to the colouring matter of the 

 blood, or rounded corpuscles like red corpuscles. 



The splenic artery, after entering the spleen divides into branches, 

 which soon leave the trabeculae, with which at first they are 

 sheathed, and their outer coat is then replaced by one of lymphoid 

 tissue; they end in an open brushwork of capillaries, the endo- 

 thelial cells of which become continuous with those of the rete of 

 the spleen-pulp. The veins begin by a similar open set of capil- 



