THE SPLEEN. 551 



Muller, "De glandul. sec. structura penitiori;" Wharton Jones in Philo- 

 sophical Transactions, 1848, II. p. 227 ; Yerneuil, " Anatomic du Pan- 

 creas," in Gazette Medicale, 1851. DaC.] 



OF THE SPLEEN. 



165. The spleen, is a so-called blood-vascular gland, which is in some 

 way concerned in the renewal of the blood, and probably with the secre- 

 tion of the bile also. It consists of a fibrous and serous coat and of a soft 

 parenchyma, the latter being principally composed of reticularly inter- 

 woven solid bands, the splenic trabeculce, enclosing a red substance, the 

 splenic pulp. In the latter we find, in addition, many peculiar white 

 corpuscles, the splenic or Malpighian corpuscles, while abundant vessels 

 and a certain number of nerves are distributed through its whole interior. 



166. Coats and Trabecular Tissue. The peritoneal investment 

 covers the whole surface of the spleen, with the exception of the hilus, 

 where, forming a sheath around the vessels and nerves, it passes on to 

 the fundus of the stomach as the ligamentum gastro-lienale, and of the 

 upper extremity, from which it becomes detached, as the lig. phrenico- 

 lienale ; it adheres so closely to the fibrous coat in Man (though not in 

 Ruminants), that it can only be dissected from the organ in fragments. 



The fibrous coat (tunica albuginea seu propria) completely surrounds 

 the surface of the spleen, as a moderately thin and semi-transparent 

 but very strong membrane, and at the hilus, passes into its interior, like 

 Glisson's capsule, accompanying the vessels in the form of peculiar 

 sheaths, the vagince vasorum. In man, it is composed of common connec- 

 tive tissue, with abundant networks of elastic fibres, whilst in some 

 animals, the Dog, Pig, Ass, Cat (not in the Rabbit, Horse, Ox, Hedge- 

 hog, Guiena-pig, and Bat), I find it to contain smooth muscles in consi- 

 derable numbers.* 



The trabeculce of the spleen are white, shining, flattened or cylindri- 

 cal fibres, having on an average, a diameter of io-J of a line, which 

 are attached in great num- 



F\ fr . 226. 



bers to the inner surface of 

 the fibrous coat, and less 

 frequently to the outer sur- 

 face of the sheaths of the 

 vessels, and unite with simi- 

 lar trabeculce in the interior, 

 into a network which extends 

 through the whole organ. 

 The interstices included in 



FiG. 226. Transverse section through the middle of an Ox-spleen, washed out, to show 

 the trabeculae and their arrangement. Natural size. 



* [The existence of these muscles in the ox's spleen was first pointed out by Dr. Sharpey. 

 See Quain and Sharpey's Anatomy, p. 1086 (Vol. II., p. 498. Am. Ed.) TES.] 



