OF THE SPLEEN. 267 



blueish, leaden, or livid colour, and this is the aspect it com- 

 monly wears when we examine it in a body a few days after 

 death, or when putrefaction has taken place; but if we ex- 

 amine it in a human body a few hours after death, or in an 

 animal soon after it has been killed, we find it of a deep red 

 or blood colour, which gradually changes as putrefaction ad- 

 vances. We shall therefore conclude that the colour, which 

 has been generally considered as characteristical of the spleen, 

 is no more than the effect of that change which takes place in 

 all animal substances after life is extinct. 



SECT. 54. The spleen, in common with all other viscera con- 

 tained in the cavity of the abdomen, hath an external covering 

 from the peritoneum; under the peritoneal coat is a proper 

 capsule surrounding the whole gland, and to which its tender 

 substance closely adheres. 



SECT. 55. The substance of the spleen, particularly if putre- 

 faction hath taken place,. is extremely soft and tender, readily 

 breaking down under the touch, and exhibiting that appear- 

 ance called by the Greeks parenchyma ; 1 and at the first sight 

 it hath much the appearance of effused blood; but many ex- 

 periments prove that this tender substance is no other than 

 very small vessels broken down by putrefaction (cxxxi), and 

 not parenchyma. 



SECT. 56. On cutting into the spleen, many small ligaments 

 are seen passing from side to side of it, and those in quadru- 

 peds being large and intersecting each other, gave rise to the 

 opinion, that the spleen was full of large cells into which the 

 blood was thought to have been poured, and these cells were 

 supposed to be demonstrated by a spleen prepared in the fol- 

 lowing manner. An injection pipe being fixed into the artery 

 or vein of the spleen of an ox, warm water is injected, and 

 the substance of the spleen is kneaded (by which the small 



1 Quarta denique, parenchyma in qua sanguis effusus circa venas nulla sen dispo- 

 sitas. Adrian! Spigelii de Human! Corporis Fabrica, p. 108. 



(cxxxi.) The effect is too rapid for the cause assigned by Mr. Falconar. 

 The change is probably owing to a softening of the fibrin of the blood 

 coagulated in the spleen after death, and not to an alteration in the 

 tissue of the organ. See Andral's Hematologie Pathologique, 8vo, 

 Paris, 1843, pp. 70-71. 



