FUNCTIONS OF SPLEEN. 417 



Then again, it seems not improbable that, as Hewson 

 originally suggested, the spleen, and perhaps to some 

 extent the other vascular glands, are, like the lymphatic 

 glands, engaged in the formation of the germs of subse- 

 quent blood-corpuscles. For it seems quite certain, that 

 the blood of the splenic vein contains an unusually large 

 amount of white corpuscles; and in the disease termed 

 leucocythsemia, in which the pale corpuscles of the blood 

 are remarkably increased in number, there is almost 

 always found an hypertrophied state of the spleen or thy- 

 roid body, or some of the lymphatic glands. Accordingly 

 there seems to be a close analogy in function between the 

 so-called vascular and the lymphatic glands : the former 

 elaborating albuminous principles, and forming the germs 

 of new blood-corpuscles out of alimentary materials ab- 

 sorbed by the blood-vessels ; the latter discharging the 

 .like office on nutritive materials taken up by the general 

 absorbent system. In Kolliker's opinion, the development 

 of colourless and also coloured corpuscles of the blood is 

 one of the essential functions of the spleen, into the veins 

 of which tho new-formed corpuscles pass, and are thus 

 conveyed into the general current of the circulation. 



There is reason to believe, too, that in the spleen many 

 of the red corpuscles of the blood, those probably which 

 have discharged their office and are worn out, undergo 

 disintegration ; for in the coloured portion of the spleen- 

 pulp an abundance of such corpuscles, in various stages of 

 degeneration, are found, while the red corpuscles in the 

 splenic venous blood are said to be relatively diminished. 

 According to Kolliker's description of this process of dis- 

 integration, the blood-corpuscles, becoming smaller and 

 darker, collect together in roundish heaps, which may 

 remain in this condition, or become each surrounded by a 

 cell-wall. The cells thus produced may contain from one 

 to twenty blood-corpuscles in their interior. These cor- 

 puscles become smaller and smaller ; exchange their red 



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