336 



DUCTLESS GLANDS. 



certain diseased conditions, such as ague, syphilis, or heart disease, 

 it may be enormously increased, in some cases as much as 1 to 7, 

 or 9 kilograms, the average normal weight being about 176 grams 

 in the cadaver, or about 225 grams during life, on account of the 

 contained blood. Its color is dark red. The size of the spleen is 

 greatest during digestion, and least during starvation. 



Chemical Composition. The spleen consists of about 75 

 per cent, water and 25 per cent, solids, of which only about 1 

 per cent, is inorganic, a part being iron. The organic ingredients 

 are proteids, among them being a cell-globulin and a nucleo- 

 * proteid ; whether peptones exist or not is still undecided ; hemo- 

 globin, xanthin, uric acid, glycogen, cholesterin, lecithin, and the 

 fatty acids, formic, acetic, and butyric. The reaction of the gland 



Intralobular trabec 



ula. 



Artery to one of the 

 ten compartments. 



Intralobular artery 



Interlobular trabec- 



ula. 



Capsule. 



Intralobular venous 

 spaces. 



*-f r - '~ Intralobular vein. 



1 ~ 



-"Ampulla of Thoma. 



~ - Spleen pulp cord. 

 Interlobular vein. 



ir 



Intralobular vein. 



Intralobular trabec- p 

 ula. 



Malpighian cor- - 

 puscle. 



FIG. 181. Diagram of lobule of the spleen (Mall, Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulletin, 



Sept., Oct., 1898). 



is alkaline during life, becoming acid after death, due to the forma- 

 tion of sarcolactic acid. 



Structure. The outer covering is peritoneal, and is closely 

 adherent to the fibro-elastic coat or tunica propria, the two form- 

 ing practically one. From it are given off trabeculce, which form 

 the framework of the organ, in the interspaces of which, areolae, 

 is the splenic pulp, a soft material with a reddish-brown color, 

 within which are whitish bodies, Malpighian corpuscles (Figs. 180, 

 181), composed of lymphoid tissue, and having a diameter of from 

 ^ mm. to 1 mm. The spleen-pulp, when examined under the 

 microscope, is seen to be made up of connective-tissue corpuscles, 

 the sustentacular cells, from which are given off processes that 

 form by their union a network in the areolse of which is blood, 

 characterized by a large number of white corpuscles. The 



