GLANDS. 141 



spleen, or, with Kolliker, that it is an organ whose 

 function is to destroy them ? 



Amongst the elements of the spleen there remain 

 to be noticed some cells of a fusiform shape, very 

 much enlarged around their nuclei (fig. VII. 2). In 

 comparing these corpuscles with the epithelial cells 

 of the vessels, it is difficult, from their similarity of 

 shape, not to regard them as identical in nature 

 Nevertheless, Fiihrer* (Gazette hebd., 1855, p. 314), 

 takes a different view of them, and assigns to them 

 an important physiological function. According to 

 his view, these fusiform cells, swelled out like so 

 many aneurisms, are nothing more than tubes con- 

 nected to each other, end to end, and communicating 

 with the capillaries of the spleen, whilst their nuclei 

 are the future red blood globules. Fiihrer has doubt- 

 less allowed himself to be carried away by the desire 

 to establish an analogy between these fusiform bodies 

 and the arterial dilatations which exist in fishes, and 

 he has overlooked their epithelial character. 



The smallest of the veins spring from the capil- veins, etc. 

 laries, run alone for a short distance, and then join 

 the arteries. The lymphatics, superficial and deep, 

 meet and unite at the hilus, whence they are trans- 

 mitted directly to the thoracic duct. The nerves of 

 the spleen are numerous ; they are distributed with 

 its arterial branches, and seem to terminate by free 

 extremities. 



It is a matter of extreme difficulty to determine 

 the relations which exist between the splenic pulp, 



* A practising physician at Hamburgh, author of a popular work on 

 Surgical Anatomy. (Ed.) 



