THE SPLEEN 



221 



cavity, slightly below and towards the left side of the 

 stomach and immediately to the left of the tail of the 

 pancreas (Fig. 67). It is an elongated, flattened, red 

 body, abundantly supplied with blood by an artery called 

 the splenic artery, which proceeds almost directly from 

 the aorta. The blood which has traversed the spleen is 

 collected by the splenic vein, and is carried by it to the 

 portal vein, and so to the liver. The spleen is covered 



tyrn 



Fia. 67. 



The spleen (Sp?) with the splenic artery (Sp.vl.). Below this is seen the 

 splenic vein running to help to form the vena portae (V.P.'). Ao, the 

 aorta; D, a pillar of the diaijhragm ; P.D. the pancreatic duct exposed 

 by dissection in the substance of the pancreas ; Dm. the duodenum ; 

 B.D, the biliary duct uniting with the pancreatic duct into the common 

 duct, X ; y, the intestinal vessels. 



by a capsular sheath of connective tissue mixed with 

 a good deal of elastic tissue and in some animals a great 

 deal of unstriated muscle fibres. Somewhat in the same 

 way as in a lymphatic gland (p. 89) this capsule sends 

 branching projections or trabeculse inwards which 

 divide the organ up into a number of irregular spaces, and 

 these spaces are filled with a mass of spongy tissue 

 called the spleen-pulp. The pulp is traversed by a 

 network of branching cells whose processes are somewhat 



