DUCTLESS GLANDS. 333 



is situated in the left hypochondriac region, next the cardiac 

 extremity of the stomach. Its color is of a dark bluish-red, 

 and its consistence is rather soft and friable. It is shaped 

 somewhat like the tongue of a dog, presenting above, a 

 rather thickened extremity, which is in relation with the 

 diaphragm, and below, a pointed extremity, in relation with 

 the transverse colon. Its external surface is convex, and its 

 internal surface concave, presenting a vertical fissure, the 

 hilum, giving passage to the vessels and nerves. It is con- 

 nected with the stomach by the gastro-splenic omentum, and 

 is still further fixed by a fold of the peritoneum passing to 

 the diaphragm. It is about five inches in length, three or 

 four inches in breadth, and a little more than an inch in 

 thickness. Its weight is between six and seven ounces. In 

 the adult it attains its maximum of development, and 

 diminishes slightly in size and weight in old age. In early 

 life it bears about the same relation to the weight of the 

 body as in the adult. 1 It is frequently hypertrophied to an 

 enormous extent in disease, weighing sometimes as much 

 as twenty pounds. 3 



The external coat of the spleen is the peritoneum ; which 

 is very closely adherent to the subjacent fibrous struc- 

 ture. The proper coat is dense and resisting; but in the 

 human subject is quite thin and somewhat translucent. It 

 is composed of inelastic fibrous tissue, mixed with numerous 

 small fibres of elastic tissue and a few unstriped muscular 

 fibres. 



At the hilum the fibrous coat penetrates the substance 

 of the spleen in the form of sheaths for the vessels and 

 nerves ; an arrangement entirely analogous to the fibrous 



physiologic, Paris, 1862, tome vii., p. 235). According to Gray, the spleen 

 exists without exception in all the vertebrate animals ( Structure and Use of the 

 Spleen, London, 1854, p. 272). 



1 Mr. Gray, in his elaborate essay on the spleen, gives a very extended table 

 of the weight of this organ at different periods of life (Structure and Use of the 

 Spleen, London, 1854, p. 76). 



8 GRAY, Anatomy, Descriptive and Surgical, Philadelphia, 1862, p. 685. 



