OF THE SPLEEN. 245 



395. The splenic blood is very fluid, coagulates with 

 great difficulty, separates the serum from the crassa- 

 mentum imperfectly, and is of a livid dark colour, like 

 the blood of the foetus. These circumstances clearly 

 demonstrate the abundance in it of carbonaceous mat- 

 ter ; which is likewise proved indisputably by an easy 

 experiment. Whenever I have exposed sections of a 

 recent spleen to oxygen gas, they have acquired a very 

 bright red colour, while the air, losing its oxygen, has 

 become impregnated with carbon. 



396. But since the spleen is the only organ of that 

 description quite destitute of an excretory duct except- 

 ing its veins which run ultimately to the liver, its func- 

 tion is probably subservient to that of the latter. This 

 opinion has appeared strengthened by the observation, 

 that in animals deprived of their spleen, — an expe- 

 riment frequently made from the most remote period,* 

 the cystic bile is sometimes found pale and inert. 



397. At least twenty hypotheses have been framed 

 respecting the use of the spleen. Two more have been 

 lately advanced, both supposing a connection between 

 the spleen and stomach, but the onef regarding the 

 spleen as a diverticulum to the blood destined to form 

 the gastric juice ; (A) the other, % supported by excel- 

 lent arguments and experiments, making the spleen to 

 receive a great portion of our drink from the cardiac 

 extremity of the stomach, so that these may pass 

 through a short cut, hitherto unknown, from the sto- 

 mach to the spleen, and thus into the mass of blood. 



* J. H. Schulze, He splene canibus exciso. Hal. 1735. 4to. 



f Vine. Malacarne, Memorie delta soc. italiana. T. viii. P. 1. p. 233. 



A. Morcschi, Del vero e primario uso delta milza. Milan. 1803. 8vo. 

 X Ever. Home, Philos. Trans. 1808. 



