SPLEEN. 353 



The physiological functions of the spleen are little known, with the 

 exception of its importance in the formation of leucocytes. Some 

 consider the spleen as an organ for the dissolution of the red blood-cor- 

 puscles, and the occurrence of the above-mentioned deposit rich in iron 

 seems to confirm this view, but this iron could in part have another 

 origin. ASHER and GROSSENBACHER found that the spleen is an organ 

 for the iron metabolism, as they found in a splenectomized dog that 

 the iron elimination was much greater than in a dog with its spleen. 

 GROSSENBACHER and ZIMMERMANN l found that a splenectomized dog 

 eliminates more iron than a normal dog even 10-11 months after the 

 operation. This shows that no compensation occurs even after this long 

 time. The spleen seems to be of little importance in taking up artificially 

 introduced iron. The destruction of blood-corpuscles caused by pyro- 

 dine (acetylphenylhydrazine) increases the elimination of iron by nor- 

 mal dogs ana also in splenectomized dogs, but in these latter to a much 

 higher degree. The destruction of body substance produced exper- 

 imentally by insufficient food or iron-free food causes a strongly increased 

 elimination of iron and comparatively much stronger in splenectomized 

 animals as compared with normal animals. This speaks in favor of 

 ASHER'S view that the spleen is an organ which works up the iron set 

 free in the destruction of the body material containing iron. 



The spleen has also been claimed to play a certain part in digestion. 

 This organ is said by SCHIFF, HERZEN, and others to be of importance in 

 the production of trypsin in the pancreas. The investigations of HER- 

 ZEN seem to confirm this relation, but the recent work of PRYM 2 has 

 made the assumption doubtful. 



An increase in the quantity of uric acid eliminated in splenic leucaBmia 

 has been observed by many investigators (see Chapter XV), while the 

 reverse has been observed under the influence of quinine in large doses, 

 which produces an enlargement of the spleen. These facts give a rather 

 positive proof that there is a close relation between the spleen and 

 the formation of uric acid. This relation has been studied by 

 HORBACZEWSKI. He has shown that when the spleen-pulp and blood of 

 calves are allowed to act on each other, under certain conditions and tem- 

 perature, in the presence of air, large quantities of uric acid are formed. 

 Under other conditions he obtained from the spleen-pulp only purine 

 bases with very little or no uric acid. HORBACZEWSKI 3 has also shown 

 that the uric acid originates from the nucleins of the spleen, which yield 



1 Asher and Grossenbacher, Centralbl. f. Physiol., 22, 375, and Grossenbacher and 

 Zimmermann, Bioch. Zeitschr., 17. 



2 Schiff, cited by Herzen, Pfliiger's Arch., 30, 295, 308, and 84, and Maly's Jahr- 

 esber., 18; Prym, Pfliiger's Arch., 104 and 107; see also Chapter IX. 



3 Monatshefte f. Chem., 10, and Wien. Sitzungsber. Math. Nat. Klasse, 100, Abt. 3. 



