282 FORMATION OF 



lymphatic vessels of the spleen convey the red particles of the 

 blood into the thoracic duct, and from thence they pass into 

 the blood-vessels, which is the place assigned to them by 

 nature, and from whence they are to be conveyed to the dif- 

 ferent parts of the body, to answer the purposes of nutrition 

 and vivification. 



SECT. 96. That the spleen really does secrete the vesicular 

 portion of the red particles of the 1 blood we have very con- 

 vincing proofs (CXLV). 



SECT. 97. First, if the spleen be diseased, the body for a 

 time gradually wastes. 



SECT. 98. Secondly, we have proved that vast numbers of 

 central particles made by the thymus and lymphatic glands, 

 are poured into the blood-vessels through the thoracic duct, 

 and if we examine the blood attentively, we see them floating 

 in it (CXLVI). Nature surely would not make so infinitely 

 many particles to answer no purpose ! What then becomes 

 of these particles after they are mixed with the circulating 

 blood ; are they immediately destroyed ? No. They are, we 

 believe, carried with the blood to the spleen, not that the 

 spleen has any elective attraction over them ; but that being 

 equally and uniformly diffused through the general mass of 

 blood, a due proportion of them is received by the spleen with 

 its arterial blood, and that when arrived there, the spleen has 

 a power of separating them from the other parts of the blood, 

 and of depositing them in the cells of that gland already de- 



(CXLV.) See Note cxxxm, p. 273. 



(CXLVI.) This passage is so clear, as completely to set aside the 

 claim made of late years by M. Mandl a and others, to the discovery of 

 the pale globules of the blood. In that of mammalia, it is quite 

 evident that Hewson had seen these globules, and considered them in 

 all the vertebrata as lymph-corpuscles, a view which has recently been 

 revived. b Senac c also appears to have seen the pale globules in the 

 blood, and to have regarded them as belonging to the chyle. 



That the lymph-globule is an immature cell, which may change in 

 the blood, and even in the thoracic duct or lymphatic vessels, into the 

 larger and more perfect pale cell of the blood, is very probable : 

 see Note cxxn, pp. 253-4. 



a Anat. Microscop. liv. i, p. 8. fol. Paris, b See the App. to the English edition of 

 1838 ; et Anat. Gener. p. 252, 8vo, Gerber's Anatomy, pp. 15, 19. 



Par. 1843. c Traite du Coeur, torn, ii, pp. 91, 661, 



ed, 1749 ; and 2d ed. torn, ii, p. 279. 



