786 



SPLEEN. 



ments concerning this on thirty rabbits, and 

 obtained the following results. Of fifteen 

 animals which were examined, two, five, and 

 eight hours after eating, cells with unchanged 

 blood globules were found in eleven ; in five 

 they were in masses ; in six separate ; in four 

 cases they did not occur at all. Fifteen 

 other animals, which were killed twelve, 

 twenty-four, and forty-eight hours after eating, 

 showed in eleven cases no trace of the cells 

 mentioned ; in two cases many were present, 

 in two cases a few only. And, vice versa, 

 golden yellow granule-cells (metamorphoses of 

 the cells with unchanged blood globules) 

 occurred fourteen times in the latter animals ; 

 ten times in great quantity, once in consider- 

 able numbers, and three times very sparingly, 

 while in one instance only were they alto- 

 gether wanting. In the fifteen animals first 

 mentioned these were twice absent, five times 

 sparingly present, twice in considerable num- 

 bers, and six times in large quantity. The 

 conclusion to be deduced from these facts is, 

 that cells with unchanged blood globules only 

 show themselves a short time after eating, 

 and that the granule-cells which proceed from 

 these are almost always present, although in 

 greater number in animals which have fasted 

 a considerable time. If any animal were 

 examined at the proper time, one would be 

 astonished at the uncommon quantity of de- 

 composing blood globules; for in such a case 

 the whole red part of the pulp consists (so to 

 speak) of nothing but golden yellow or 

 blackish corpuscles, which are the different 

 metamorphoses of blood corpuscles already 

 mentioned,. 



Of the ultimate destiny of the blood cor- 

 puscles so metamorphosed, thus much is 

 certain, that they are decomposed and dis- 

 solved ; but, on the other hand, it is difficult 

 to make out what is the destiny of the cells 

 which usually enclose them We have already 

 seen above that these cells occur in the 

 splenic vein, the vena portoe, and the inferior 

 cava, and it is thence questionable whether 

 all these cells may not possibly pass into the 

 blood. It is difficult to give an answer to 

 this. Thus much I consider to be made out : 

 that cells with unchanged blood globules, 

 and yellow, brown, or blackish-yellow granule- 

 cells, only exceptionally and seldom pass into 

 the blood of the splenic vein, or beyond ; 

 since, in the first place, these cells are, upon 

 the whole, rarely found in the blood ; while, 

 secondly, their occurrence in the spleen is 

 demonstrably very frequent. On the other 

 hand, as to the colourless granule-cel'ls which 

 finally arise from the cells containing blood 

 corpuscles, it is not made out whether they 

 remain in the spleen or enter the blood. 

 Supposing the first of these to be the case, 

 they may either abide a considerable time in 

 the pulp, and then in a certain manner serve 

 as parenchyma-cells, with which they have a 

 great similarity, or they may experience a 

 dissolution, and altogether disappear. In the 

 second case, one may imagine that they are 

 converted into lymph corpuscles, with which 



they have, to some extent, a great similarity, 

 or that they undergo a solution in the blood 

 of the portal vein and the rest of the circula- 

 tion. I own that I cannot hazard a decision. 

 It is certain that colourless granule-cells 

 occur in the blood as well as in the spleen ; 

 but it is also certain that they are much 

 more frequent in the spleen, and that, as 

 regards the blood of extravasation which un- 

 dergoes metamorphosis, it may be definitely 

 stated, that its products for the most part 

 remain in the same place. 



So much for my experience of the decom- 

 position of blood corpuscles in the spleen. 

 Simultaneously with myself, Professor Ecker, 

 of Basle, made similar observations, which 

 likewise referred to a destruction of blood 

 corpuscles, and which, soon after, lent an ad- 

 ditional light to mine.* In contradiction 

 to this, however, Gerlach has lately uttered 

 the opinion that my observations allude to 

 the formation of colored corpuscles within 

 colorless ones ; so that he explains the 

 forms of cells which are found in the spleen 

 in precisely the reverse way, and supposes 

 that the cells with golden yellow granules are 

 the younger, and those with unchanged blood 

 corpuscles the elder ; that is, that they are 

 those in which the blood corpuscles have 

 completely developed themselves, and from 

 which they are ready to be expelled or set free. 

 So that if Gerlach be correct, the relation of 

 the blood corpuscles to the spleen is precisely 

 the reverse of that which I have stated, and 

 they begin there in great quantities ; and it 

 thus becomes important to inquire whose 

 opinion is the correct one. But if my ex- 

 periments upon the behaviour of the blood 

 corpuscles in the spleen have no other con- 

 sideration, this merit, at least, remains to 

 them, that they accurately set forth the 

 anatomical facts, and in this manner have 

 already sufficed to refute such false theories 

 as that of Gerlach. In point of fact, Gerlach 

 is altogether wrong when he supposes that 

 the golden yellow granules are changed into 

 blood globules ; for this can in no way be 

 proved, but very easily the contrary. He is 

 equally in error in adducing, as a ground for 

 this view, that blood corpuscles begin as cells 

 in the embryonal liver, a statement which is 

 altogether incorrect. And when he finally 

 adduces that since, according to Harless -j-, 

 the blood corpuscles are destroyed by the 

 alternating influence of nitrogen and carbonic 

 acid, a second kind of solution of these in the 

 spleen cannot be conceived ; it need only be 

 remarked that this theory of Harless's is not 

 in the least proved as regards the living 

 organism. So, also, Virchow J has expressed 

 himself as partially against mine and Ecker's 

 account ; since, though he does not at all 

 doubt the dissolution of blood corpuscles, yet 

 he altogether denies the origin of cells around 



* Loc. cit. 



f Ueber den Einfluss der Gase auf die Form der 

 Blutkugelchen : Erlangen, 1846. 



J Archiv fur pathologisclie Anatomic und 

 klinische Medicin, Band i. SS. 452. 483. 



