DUCTLESS GLANDS. 347 



earlier experimenters, and formed the basis of some of their 

 extravagant theories. Boerhaave mentions this fact in his 

 Animal Economy l and Dumas advances it in support of a 

 theory that the spleen takes up the superabundant portion 

 of the gastric fluid. 2 Later experimenters have observed 

 this change in the appetite, and have noted that digestion 

 and assimilation do not appear to be disturbed, the ani- 

 mals becoming unusually fat. Prof. Dalton has also ob- 

 served that the animals, particularly dogs, sometimes present 

 a remarkable change in their disposition, becoming unnatu- 

 rally ferocious and aggressive.* We have frequently observed 

 these phenomena after removal of the spleen ; and in the 

 following experiment, performed in 1861, they were particu- 

 larly marked : 



The spleen was removed from a young dog weighing 

 twenty-two pounds, by the ordinary method ; viz., making 

 an incision into the abdominal cavity in the linea alba, 

 drawing out the spleen, and exsecting it after tying the 

 vessels. Before the operation the dog presented nothing 

 unusual, either in his appetite or disposition. The wound 

 healed rapidly, and after recovery had taken place, the 

 animal was fed moderately once a day. It was noticed, how- 

 ever, that the appetite was excessively voracious ; and the 

 dog became so irritable and ferocious that it was dangerous 

 to approach him, and it became necessary to separate him 

 from the other animals in the laboratory. He would eat 

 refuse from the dissecting-room, the flesh of dogs, faeces, etc. 

 On February 11, 1861, about six weeks after the operation, 

 having been well fed twenty-four hours before, the dog was 

 brought before the class at the ~New Orleans School of Medi- 

 cine, and ate a little more than four pounds of beef-heart, 

 nearly one fifth of his weight. This he digested perfectly 

 well, and the appetite was the same on the following day. 



1 BOERHAAYE, Actio Lienis, (Economia Animalis, London, 1761, p. 80. 



8 DUMAS, Principes de physiologic, Paris, 1803, tome iv., p. 611. 



8 DALTON, A Treatise on Human Physiology, Philadelphia, 1867, p. 195. 



