784 



SPLEEN. 



Reptilia, amongst which I have only ex- 

 amined Anguis fragilis and Coluber austriacus, 

 I have seen no cells with unchanged blood 

 globules ; but in the Anguis I found pale yel- 

 low, brown, and black granule-cells, which 

 were, as in birds, of from 6 to 10-1000ths of 

 a line in diameter. Transitions of these into 

 faintly yellowish and colourless granule-cells 

 were also present in considerable number, 

 being almost as frequent as the ordinary pa- 

 renchyma cells in the spleen-pulp. The Co- 

 luber austriacus certainly exhibited an effu- 

 sion of blood in the parenchyma of the spleen, 

 but no changes of the blood corpuscles. The 

 naked amphibia offered a striking contrast. 

 Amongst them I examined Rana temporaria 

 and esculenta, Bombinator igneus, Hyla ar- 

 borea, Bufo cinereus, Alytes obstetricans, 

 Salamandra maculata and atra, Triton igneus, 

 taeniatus, and cristatus. The cells with blood 

 globules were better seen in these than in any 

 other animals. This was especially the case 

 in Triton, Bombinator, and Rana, in which 

 5, 10, 20, and more blood globules, with dis- 

 tinct nuclei, were frequently seen occupying a 

 plainly nucleated cell of 6 to 12-1000ths of 

 a line in diameter. The size of the blood 

 globules in these cases allowed their meta- 

 morphoses to be followed through all stages, 

 as is represented in fig. 532. At first they 

 were round, of an intense yellow, and less 

 easily altered by water ; then they contracted 

 themselves yet more together, assumed a golden 

 yellow or brown yellow colour, and were no 

 longer assailed by 'water ; finally, they became 

 colourless, or experienced a transition into 

 black granules, while they generally also fell 

 asunder into smaller granules. In this manner 

 golden and brownish yellow granule-cells (fig. 

 532. 1.) arise from the cells with unchanged 

 blood globules (fig. 532. 2, 3, 5.), and finally 

 they experience a transition into colourless 

 granule-cells (fig. 532. 4.), or exist for a 

 longer time as black pigment cells. 



d. In fishes I have recognised the same con- 

 ditions as in the naked amphibia, only they 

 were not so brilliant. The cells with blood 

 globules were very distinctly seen in Salmo 

 fario, Cyprinus carpio and brama, Tinea chry- 

 sitis, Esox lucius, Perca fluviatilis, Coregonus 

 muraena, and Gadus lota. In Anguilla flu- 

 viatilis, Aspius alburnus, Chondrostoma nasus, 

 leucocephalus, &c., they were less plainly seen; 

 nevertheless, cells with shrunken blood cor- 

 puscles, or aggregates of such, occurred also 

 in these. In all fishes these structures be- 

 come converted partly into colourless granule- 

 cells, partly into black pigment-cells and pig- 

 ment masses, which finally often lose their 

 colour. 



The place where the changes of the blood 

 corpuscles above mentioned occur can be 

 demonstrated in some amphibia to be the 

 bloodvessels. Thus, in Triton igneus, the 

 spleen is at its margins tolerably transparent, 

 and here one frequently comes upon the cells 

 which contain blood corpuscles, occupying 

 the capillaries in a row one after another 

 and here we are also able to drive them into 



the larger venous channels by pressure, so 

 that one of these is often filled by a consider- 

 able streak, consisting entirely of these alto- 

 gether characteristic elements. Whether this 

 occurrence is a rule in the Triton, and 

 whether it obtains in other amphibia, I am 

 unable to certify. Yet I may communicate 

 that, in the Triton, frog, toad, and Salamandra 

 atra, 1 have found these cells containing blood 

 corpuscles even in the trunks of the splenic 

 vein and vena portae ; while in Bufo cinereus, 

 Triton igneus, and Salamandra, I have found 

 them in the hepatic branches of the vena 

 porta?, even to its capillaries ; and in the 

 latter animal, even in the inferior cava and the 

 heart. In any case, these facts may be con- 

 sidered as conclusive of the not unfrequent 

 occurrence and formation of the cells in ques- 

 tion within the bloodvessels of the spleen ; 

 although it can scarcely be added that they 

 are not probably also formed in the extra- 

 vasated blood. In certain genera of fishes, as 

 in Tinea, Esox, Perca, the cells which contain 

 blood corpuscles, and their metamorphoses, 

 are seen included in round delicate-walled 

 vesicles of from I -40th to l-16thofa line in 

 diameter (fig. 533.), which for the most part 



Fig. 533. 



Artery (a), with a cyst (M in its tunica adventitia (c), 

 which contains cells (d) enclosing blood corpuscles. 

 From the spleen of the Tinea chrysitis. 



sit on the ramifications of the splenic arteries, 

 either laterally on the vessels, or on the points 

 where they divide ; and which are connected 

 with the sheath or exterior membrane of the 

 same ; or, in other words, are nothing else 

 than pouchings of the same. How these ve- 

 sicles are developed I have not determined, 

 yet I can scarcely doubt that they have the 

 import of false aneurisms, and owe their 

 origin to a tearing of the inner and middle 

 tunics, and to a protrusion of the tunica ad- 

 ventitia, together with the sheath of the ves- 

 sels (if the latter texture can be supposed to 

 exist here). The similarity of these vesicles 

 with the Malpighian corpuscles of the mam- 

 mals seems to be especially worthy of men- 

 tion. After the description already given of 

 the relation of the Malpighian corpuscles to 

 the arteries, it is unnecessary to explain in de- 

 tail, that the correspondence of both in re- 

 spect of their site is very great. But, in re- 

 spect of their contents a similar resemblance 

 is sometimes exhibited, when, as in the cysts 

 of fihes, the cells with blood corpuscles 



