THE SPLEEN. 159 



This is not the place to discuss at length the functions of 

 the spleen ; I must refer to my ' Mikroskopische Anatomie/ 

 II, 2, p. 282, and content myself here with stating, that I 

 consider the spleen to be an organ into whose parenchyma con- 

 stituents of the blood enter bodily and at times in increased 

 quantity, and, with the co-operation of cellular elements, which 

 are in a state of continual formation and solution, undergo, 

 more especially a retrogressive, but partly also a progressive 

 metamorphosis, in the end to be taken up again by the blood 

 and lymphatics, in order to be excreted from the body or 

 further applied to the purposes of the organism. 



[Up to a certain point the investigation of the spleen presents 

 no difficulties; the pulp, the trabecule, and the Malpighian 

 corpuscles, are at once obvious. The latter are most readily 

 examined in the Pig and Ox, where the coat and the contents 

 may easily be isolated, and the connection with the vessels 

 is also apparent. To see blood-corpuscle-holding cells, the 

 addition of water must be avoided. The muscular fibres are 

 beautifully seen in the finer trabecules of the Ox, and in the 

 trabecules of the Pig and Dog ; and here maceration in nitric 

 acid, of 20 per cent., is of service. The arteries and capillaries 

 are easily injected; the veins with great difficulty; most readily 

 in Man. The nerves are found with ease on the arteries ; the 

 lymphatics may be best studied in the Ox.] 



Literature of the Spleen. — M. Malpighi, < De liene/ in 

 'Exercit. de vise, struct./ Lond., 1669; J. Muller, 'Ueber 

 die Structur der eigenthumlichen Korperchen in der Milz 

 einiger pflanzenfressenden Thiere/ Miiller's 'Archiv/ 1834 (the 

 first good anatomical work since Malpighi) ; T. C. H. Giesker, 

 f Splenologie, I. anatomisch. physiologische Untersuchungen 

 liber die Milz/ Zurich, 1835 (a very elaborate treatise) ; 

 Schwager-Bardeleben, ' Observationes micros, de gland, ductu 

 excretorio carentium structura/ Berol., 1841 ; Th. von 

 Hessling, c Untersuchungen iiber die weissen Korperchen der 

 menschlichen Milz/ Regensburg, 1842; A. Kolliker, < Ueber 

 den Bau und die Verrichtungen der Milz/ in Mittheil. ' Der 

 Ziirch. nat. Gesellschaft/ 1847, p. 120; ' Ueber Blutkorper- 

 chen haltige Zellen/ in ' Zeitsch. fur wiss. Zool./ Bd. I, p. 261, 

 and Bd. II, p. 115 ; art. ' Spleen/ in Todd's ' Cyclopaedia of 



