194 GLIMPSES OF NATURE. 



elaboration of the elements which go to make up that 

 all-important fluid. 



Let us now appeal to other facts for further details 

 about the spleen. After it has been removed from an 

 animal's body, we note an increase in size of certain 

 other organs ; to wit, the lymphatic glands and allied 

 structures. Here we see a balance of power illus- 

 trated ; and, as these glands certainly deal with the 

 elaboration of the blood, it is a just inference that, 

 as they take on themselves the work of the absent 

 spleen, the latter organ must discharge much the same 

 duties as the glands in question. 



Nor is this all. An appeal to the facts observed 

 by physiologists and physicians reveals that more 

 white blood-globules exist in the blood that leaves the 

 spleen than in the blood which enters it. These white 

 globules are most important elements in our bodily 

 welfare. They perform the office of roving detectives, 

 ever on the look-out for intruding germs and other 

 evil-doers, arresting them and destroying them before 

 they can work their effects upon our frames. 



Again, the natural quantity of white blood-globules 

 is vastly exceeded when the spleen is irritated by 

 disease ; and these facts prove that in some way or 

 other the organ is likely to be a manufactory of white 

 blood-corpuscles. Turning again to the spleen-pulp, 

 why is it that we find in it, as already noted, large 

 numbers of red blood-corpuscles in a stage of dissolu- 

 tion ? There is suggested naturally the reply, that 

 the spleen, in addition to its work of making white 

 blood-globules, acts as a place or depot in which the 

 worn-out and useless elements of the blood are broken 

 up and disposed of. 



This, then, is the solution of the mystery of the 



