64 ORGANS OF DIGESTION. 



been conveyed to the gall bladder, and permitted to remain 

 there for some time, it becomes as thick as molasses, and in- 

 creases also in the intensity of its colour and in bitterness. 

 Some anatomists have believed that there was a more direct 

 communication between the liver and the gall bladder than that 

 through the hepatic and the cystic duct; but repeated and close 

 observations have proved the opinion to be erroneous, or, at 

 least destitute of proper prc^pf: it is, therefore, clear, that the 

 difference between the hepatic and the cystic bile, depends upon 

 the watery particles being removed from the latter by the ab- 

 sorbing power of the internal coat of the gall bladder. 



According to Eerzelius, the chemical analysis of bile fur- 

 nishes about eighty parts of water, eight of a particular sub- 

 stance which assumes a resinous condition on the application 

 of an acid: three of mucus; and nine of saline matters; of which 

 soda is a principal constituent. 



SECT. II. OF THE SPLEEN. 



The Spleen (Lien, Spleri) is situated deeply in the posterior 

 part of the left hypochondriac region, and is bounded above by 

 the diaphragm, below by the colon, and on the right by the 

 great end of the stomach, and by the pancreas. It is not ascer- 

 tained that it secretes any thing. 



Its colour varies from a deep blue to a dark brown. In shape 

 it resembles the longitudinal section of an oval, being flat or 

 very slightly concave on the surface next to the stomach, and 

 convex on that contiguous to the diaphragm. Occasionally its 

 margins are notched, but this is not invariably the case. Its 

 flat surface is slightly depressed longitudinally in the centre 

 into an imperfect fissure, where the blood vessels enter it by 

 six or eight foramina. 



Several spleens sometimes exist in the same individual, in 

 which case the supernumerary ones are not larger than nut- 

 megs. The common size of this organ is about four and a half 

 inches long, by two and a half or three wide, in which case 

 it has a solid firm feel; but it very often exceeds these dimen- 

 sions ; its transition and varieties of magnitude are so frequent, 

 that no settled rule can be established. In its inordinate enlarge- 



