418 "USES OF THE LIVER-DUCTLESS GLANDS. 



spleen was destroyed and the operation was followed by no serious results. 

 Since then it has been removed so often, and the experiments have been so 

 universally negative in their results, that it is hardly necessary to cite authori- 

 ties upon the subject. There are many instances, also, in which it has been 

 in part or entirely removed from the human subject, which it is unnecessary 

 to refer to in detail. One of the phenomena following extirpation of the 

 spleen is a modification of the appetite. Great voracity in animals after 

 removal of the spleen was noted by the earlier observers. Later experiment- 

 ers have observed this change in the appetite and have noted that digestion 

 and assimilation do not appear to be disturbed, the animals becoming unusu- 

 ally fat. Dalton has also observed that the animals, particularly dogs, some- 

 times present a remarkable change in their disposition, becoming unnaturally 

 ferocious and aggressive. 



In the following observation these phenomena were very well marked : 



The spleen was removed from a young dog weighing twenty-two pounds 

 (about 10 kilos.). 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, however, that the appetite was voracious. The dog became so irrita- 

 ble and ferocious that it was dangerous to approach him, and it became neces- 

 sary to separate him from the other animals in the laboratory. He would 

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

 weeks after the operation, having been well fed twenty-four hours before, the 

 dog ate at one time a little more than four pounds (1,814 grammes) of beef- 

 heart, nearly one-fifth of his weight. This he digested well, and the appetite 

 was undiminished on the following day. This dog had a remarkably sleek 

 and well nourished appearance (Flint, 1861). 



The above is a striking example of the change in the appetite and dis- 

 position of animals after extirpation of the spleen ; but these results are by 

 no means invariable. In many instances of removal of the spleen from dogs, 

 the animals we,re kept for several months and nothing unusual was observed. 

 On the other hand, the change in disposition and the development of an 

 unnatural appetite were observed in animals after removal of one kidney. 

 These effects were also very well marked in an animal with biliary fistula, 

 that lived for thirty-eight days. In the latter instance, the voracity could 

 be accounted for by the disturbance in digestion and assimilation produced 

 by shutting off the bile from the intestine ; but these phenomena occurring 

 after removal of one kidney are not so readily explained. 



Cases are on record of congenital absence of the spleen in the human sub- 

 ject, in which no special phenomena had been observed during life. 



Aside from certain uses which are connected with changes in its volume, 

 it is certain that the spleen has some relation to the formation of the blood- 

 corpuscles, both white and red. In certain cases of leucocythaemia, the spleen 

 is in a condition of hyperplastic enlargement. The blood coming from the 

 spleen is peculiarly rich in leucocytes, but the proportion of its red corpuscles 

 is diminished. It may be that the spleen destroys a certain number of red 



