300 STUDIES IN ADVANCED PHYSIOLOGY. 



corpuscles of the spleen. It must be remembered, however, 

 that the word ' * corpuscles ' ' is here not used in its usual 



Fig. 122. VERTICAL SECTION OF A PORTION OF THE HUMAN SPLEEN. (After Kolliker.) 

 a, A, fibrous capsule; 6, 6, fibrous trabeculse running through gland; c, c, Malpighian 

 corpuscles; d, d, injected arteries; e, the spleen pulp. 



sense, that it does not refer to a single structure, but to 

 an aggregation of white corpuscles in the form of a lym- 

 phatic nodule. In this sense a patch of Peyer in the intes- 

 tine might be called a Malpighian corpuscle of the intestine. 

 Further, these Malpighian corpuscles must not be confounded 

 with the splenic corpuscles just referred to, which are really 

 true corpuscles, but which are found mainly in the inter- 

 stices between the Malpighian corpuscles. From the struc- 

 ture of the spleen it will be noticed that it is essentially a 

 lymphatic gland, but that unlike true lymphatic glands 

 blood and not lymph traverses it. By the arrangement of 

 the blood-vessels the blood is brought into close contact 

 with the cells that go to make up the splenic pulp, and it 

 is there no doubt subjected to important physiological mod- 

 ifications, which unfortunately are not sufficiently under- 

 stood. 



The function of the spleen is still a chapter- reserved for 

 future investigation. That it is not essential to life is proved 



