360 ABSORBENTS OF THE SPLEEN. 



The Absorbents of the Spleen 



Are composed of superficial and deep-seated vessels; but 

 they differ greatly from those of the liver, in this respect, that 

 the superficial vessels are remarkably small in the human subject. 



Mascagni, however, asserts, that when the blood-vessels 

 of the spleen are injected with size, colored with vermillion, these 

 absorbents will be filled with^colorless size. 



In the spleen of the calf the superficial absorbents, are 

 remarkably large. 



In the human subject the superficial absorbents of the spleen 

 proceed from the convex to the concave surface, and there com- 

 municate with the deep-seated absorbents, which proceed from 

 the interior of the organ with the blood-vessels. 



These Deep-seated Absorbents are very numerous, and also 

 large. They accompany the splenic artery ; and in their course 

 pass through many glands, some of which are said to be of a 

 dark color. The glands lie on the splenic artery, at a short 

 distance from each other. The absorbents of the spleen receive 

 the absorbents of the pancreas in their course ; they unite with 

 the absorbents of the stomach and the lower surface of the 

 liver, and pass with them to the thoracic duct. 



Little has been latterly said by practical anatomists res- 

 pecting 



The Absorbents of the Pancreas. 



Mr. Cruikshank once injected them in the retrograde direc- 

 tion ; he found that they came out of the lobes of the pancreas 

 in short branches like the blood-vessels, and passed at right 

 angles into the absorbents of the spleen, as they accompanied 

 the artery in the groove of the pancreas. 



The Thoracic Duct* 



Or common trunk of the absorbent system, is formed by the 

 union of those absorbent vessels which are collected on the 

 lumbar vertebrae. 



* First discovered by Eustachius, in the horse, 1564 ; but he considered it a 

 vein for the nourishment of the thoracic viscera. H. 



