SPLEEN. 



775 



4. The splenic corpuscles or Malpighian cor- 

 puscles of the spleen (vesiculce seu glandules lienis, 

 s. corpuscula Malpighii) are whitish spherical 

 corpuscles, which are imbedded in the red 

 spleen substance of certain animals, and are 

 connected with the smallest arteries. In the 

 dead bodies of men, in the state in which they 

 are generally subjected to examination in hos- 

 pitals, these corpuscles are very seldom seen. 

 On this account, some of the earlier observers, 

 as Rudolph!, Heusinger, Andral, and others, 

 and more recently (iluge * and Oesterlen -j-, 

 have regarded them as not constant structures, 

 or even as products of disease; or have 

 considered them as J. Muller formerly did J, 

 to be altogether distinct from the splenic cor- 

 puscles of the Ruminantia. But this view is 

 erroneous, and since Giesker, Krause ||, and 

 Bischofflf, who described the splenic cor- 

 puscles of the human subject, and showed 

 their correspondence with those of the mam- 

 malia ; and since the revocation by Muller 

 of his earlier opinion **, all observers are 

 tolerably agreed, that although the corpuscles 

 in question are often deficient in the human 

 subject, yet they are not the less to be re- 

 garded as normal structures, which are in- 

 variably present in the healthy subject. 



The frequent deficiency of the splenic 

 corpuscles is explained by many circum- 

 stances. Most of the observations of them 

 concern human individuals, in whom a long 

 abstinence from food has preceded death. In 

 such cases, as Henle has well remarked -j-j-, 

 the apparent absence of the corpuscles is 

 easily explicable, since their size is notoriously 

 regulated by the quantity of ingesta. So, also, 

 great number of the human spleens which come 

 under our notice are diseased; either softened, 

 distended with blood, and soaked through with 

 extravasations, or enlarged, hardened, atro- 

 phied, or already half decomposed and putrified. 

 Finally, the human spleen corpuscles are very 

 delicate, and easily destroyed. As to the fre- 

 quency of their occurrence in diseased sub- 

 jects, we are supplied with accurate data by 

 v. Hessling, who has given the results of 960 

 dissections. Of the whole number just men- 

 tioned, Malpighian corpuscles were only pre- 

 sent in 116, or in about every eighth indi- 

 vidual. He also adds the following numerical 

 statement respecting the different ages of life. 

 In the first and second year of life the cor- 

 puscles were present in every second subject; 

 from the second to the tenth year, in every 

 third subject ; from the tenth to tha fortieth 

 year, in every sixteenth ; from the fortieth 

 year to old age, in every thirty-second. These 

 numbers are in general correct, and are readily 

 explicable when we recollect that diseases of 



* Haser's Archiv. fur die gesammte Medicin, 

 1841, SS. 83. 88. 



t Beitrage zur Physiologic des gesunden und 

 kranken Organismus, Jena, 1843, S. 48. 



J Miiller's Archiv, 1824, S. 80. 



Splenologie, S. 159. 



|) Anatomic, Band. i. S. 520. 



t Muller's Archiv, 1838, S. 500. 



** Physiologic, Aufl. 4. Band. i. S. 466. 



tf Algemeine Anatomic, S. 1000. 



the spleen are more numerous as age ad- 

 vances. But the results of mv own observa- 

 tions coincide with those of Oesterlen, in 

 representing the number of cases in which 

 corpuscles are detected as greater than that 

 above mentioned. This difference may be 

 ascribed to the difficulties which often prevent 

 the recognition of the dwindled spleen cor- 

 puscles; thus in many cases where the first 

 view has afforded no signs of their presence, 

 the application of soda, or the washing of the 

 pulp, has brought them into view. 



On the other hand, it is absolutely certain 

 that, in many spleens, they disappear without 

 leaving any traces, and cannot be made visible 

 by any method of treatment. In the bodies 

 of healthy individuals which are examined 

 while fresh, they may always be detected ; at 

 least, there are very numerous observations 

 extant in which they have been found after 

 accidental deaths, executions, suicides, &c. ; 

 and to these cases I myself am enabled to 

 add two. So, also, I have found them in a 

 great majority of the bodies of children which 

 I have examined ; and here they are both 

 very distinct and numerous, so as not to offer 

 any visible difference, in these respects, from 

 those of the Ruminantia. 



The size of the Malpighian corpuscles ex- 

 periences many variations both in men and 

 animals, even apart from the effects of dis- 

 ease : they measure from one-tenth to one- 

 third of a line; on an average, about one-sixth. 

 Their size has hitherto been somewhat too 

 highly estimated ; and chiefly on this account, 

 that sufficient preliminary care has not been 

 taken to isolate them from the surrounding 

 parts : when this is done it will be found, that 

 they are not so large as appears from viewing 

 them on a section of the spleen ; and that, in 

 many cases, they measure less than the given 

 bulk. The fluctuations in their size depend 

 not merely upon the differences of individuals, 

 but obtain in one and the same animal : in 

 this latter case, they appear mainly to be 

 regulated by the condition of the chylopoietic 

 viscera ; although accurate data, as to these 

 points in the human subject, are altogether 

 deficient. 



It is also possible, as Oesterlen has sup- 

 posed, that these corpuscles experience a 

 certain course of development ; and that, in 

 many cases, the very small corpuscles are very 

 young and undeveloped ones : but, hitherto, 

 I have not been able to observe facts import- 

 ing the certain existence of a continual deve- 

 lopment of the Malpighian corpuscles in the 

 adult animal ; nevertheless, I cannot avoid 

 mentioning that, like Oesterlen, I have seen 

 in the spleens of animals little heaps (from 2 

 to 4-100ths line in size) of cells, which have 

 no distinct cell walls, and which, possibly, 

 have some relation to the formation of the 

 splenic corpuscles. It seems quite certain 

 that the spleen corpuscles are not developed 

 from separate cells of the spleen pulp ; al- 

 though this view has lately been brought for- 

 ward in a singular manner by Heinrich.* 

 * Die Krankheiten der Milz, 1847, S. 15. 

 3D 4 



