268 SITUATION AND STRUCTURE 



vessels are broken down) with the hand; the bloody water 

 being pressed out, and with it the small vessels, fresh water is 

 injected, and this process repeated until the water returns 

 colourless ; it is then inflated and dried. On cutting into a 

 dried spleen thus prepared, it exhibits a cellular appearance, 

 which has been called the cells of the spleen ; but although 

 these cells are artificial, and the structure of the gland is en- 

 tirely destroyed by that mode of preparation, yet we shall pre- 

 sently endeavour to prove that there are cells, but of a different 

 sort, existing in the substance of the spleen. 



SECT. 57. The spleen is composed of arteries, veins, nerves, 

 and lymphatic vessels, which are distributed to every point of 

 it, so that it seems a mere congeries of vessels, and conse- 

 quently receives a very large quantity of blood, and for that 

 cause it has been very properly supposed to be a gland ; and 

 according to that idea, anatomists have made every attempt 

 that their invention could devise to discover its excretory duct, 

 but without success. 



SECT. 58. The aorta, whilst in the cavity of the abdomen, 

 gives off from its fore-part three branches : the first of these, 

 called the cceliac artery, springs from the main trunk of the 

 aorta as soon as it enters the cavity between the two crura of 

 the diaphragm, and is immediately divided into three distinct 

 branches, the first of which is called the coronary artery of 

 the stomach, and carries blood to the lesser curvature of the 

 stomach. The second branch, which carries blood to the liver 

 for its nourishment, is called arteria hepatica. And the third 

 branch, which is that we are now about to trace, is called 

 arteria splenica, and carries blood to the spleen. 



SECT. 59. The splenic artery, in its passage to the spleen, 

 runs in a furrow through the whole length of the pancreas, and 

 by several small branches supplies that gland with blood for 

 the secretion of the pancreatic juice; besides which, in its 

 course nearer toward the spleen, this vessel also gives off four 

 other arterial branches, called vasa brevia, which are distributed 

 to the greater curvature of the stomach, and the last of these 

 going near the left extremity of the greater curvature, is called 

 gastrica sinistra. The trunk of the artery then passes on to 

 the spleen, and is divided into five or six branches, which enter 

 the concave side at the hollow or sinuosity of the spleen, and 



