CHAP. XXXV. 



SPLEEN PULP. 



511 



These colourless elements constitute a considerable propor- 

 tion of the spleen pulp, and are in contact with the capillary 

 walls, and with the Malpighian corpuscles of the spleen. Great 

 variation occurs in the size and general character of the cells and 

 nuclei which compose the colourless elements, and they vary 

 much in quantity in different physiological conditions of the 

 system. Mr. Gray has shown, that in well-fed animals they are 

 much more abundant than in those supplied with an insufficient 

 quantity of food, and their proportion increases after the com- 

 pletion of the digestive process. 



Fig. 247. 



Pulp of the human spleen, a, a. Blood corpuscles, b, b. Dotted nuclei, c, c. Nucleated 

 vesicles, d, d. Coloured corpuscles of hsematine. From Gray on the Spleen. 



They are composed of a proteine compound, and in their chemical 

 characters closely resemble the white corpuscles of the blood. 



The red colour of the spleen pulp is due to the presence of a 

 great number of blood globules and coloured corpuscles, free or 

 contained within cells. 



The blood globules are frequently observed to be smaller than in 

 other situations ; their outline is often indistinct ; sometimes their 

 surface appears corrugated or shrunken, and their walls in some 

 places collapsed; their outline is irregular and angular, and in 



