SPLEEN. 



787 



heaps of blood corpuscles. This statement is 

 only explicable by supposing that the Mam- 

 malia and Reptilia, in whom this pheno- 

 menon can be seen as plainly as could be 

 wished, were not examined by Virchow. 

 Besides, I do not maintain that the effused 

 blood always forms cells containing blood 

 corpuscles ; only I hold it as a fact established 

 beyond all doubt, that this very frequently 

 happens in the spleen as well as in extrava- 

 sations in the lungs, lymphatic glands, brain, 

 and thyroid body ; and while 1 believe that 

 the formation of cells around these several 

 effusions is not an equivalent fact, yet it is 

 altogether certain that blood globules enclosed 

 in cells undergo a more speedy dissolution 

 than if they remain free. 



In conclusion, one word concerning the 

 import of the changes of the blood corpuscles 

 in the spleen. It may be asked, whether 

 they constitute a normal and physiological, 

 or a pathological appearance ? On the one 

 side, very weighty grounds may be alleged for 

 the normal character, especially their (so to 

 speak) constant occurrence and innumerable 

 quantity in such a number of animals living 

 in their natural condition, as the amphibia 

 and fishes were. Furthermore, the appa- 

 rently complete health which existed in spite 

 of the vast quantity of dissolving blood 

 globules. Thirdly, in Reptilia, the cells con- 

 taining blood corpuscles may be seen in blood- 

 vessels which are in no way isolated from the 

 general circulation. Fourthly, similar and 

 constant changes of the blood repeated at 

 short intervals are absent from other organs 

 of birds, mammals, and reptiles ; and many 

 other arguments might be adduced. But, in 

 contrast to these facts, many others appear 

 on a more careful contemplation, which may 

 almost lead to the opinion that all the changes 

 of the blood globules in the spleen are pos- 

 sibly only pathological appearances. In fishes, 

 dissolutions of the blood corpuscles occur not 

 only in the spleen, but in an exactly similar 

 way in other organs, namely in the kidneys, 

 the liver, and the peritoneum. In the first 

 of these organs their presence is constant ; at 

 least, in the examination of many examples of 

 eel, pike, Coregonus muraena and muraenula, 

 Salmo fario, Barbus fluviatilis, Cyprinus brama 

 and carpio, and Tinea chrysitis, not only were 

 they always present, but almost always as 

 numerous as they were observed to be in the 

 spleen. In the peritoneum and the liver they 

 were sometimes scarce, sometimes frequent, 

 but only in the carp and Tinea chrysitis were 

 they constant ; in other fishes they were 

 either altogether absent, or only occurred 

 here and there, as in the trout. If to these 

 facts be appended that in certain animals, to 

 wit, in cats, sheep, and others, the changes 

 of the blood corpuscles in the spleen are very 

 seldom observed, one can scarcely resist the 

 notion that the appearance is abnormal ; and 

 this is much more the case when one con- 

 siders that similar appearances which are 

 known not to be physiological, constitute 

 almost constant occurrences, and are asso- 



ciated with exactly parallel changes of blood 

 globules. Of this, the small effusions of 

 blood in the lungs, bronchial glands, and 

 thyroid bodies of men, and those of the 

 lymphatic glands and mesentery of pigs and 

 rabbits, are instances. But this latter view is 

 insusceptible of full explanation ; for although 

 pathological effusions and metamorphoses of 

 blood often constitute almost a constant oc- 

 curence, yet, first, the quantity of blood 

 globules which undergo dissolution in such 

 effusions is in no comparison at all with that 

 of the millions which are destroyed in the 

 spleen ; and, secondly, it has yet to be shown 

 that effusions of blood may not occur as a 

 physiological phenomenon, as happens in the 

 bursting of a Graafian follicle in the ovary, in 

 menstruation, and in the separation of the 

 placenta. And although all animals do not 

 show in the spleen such a solution of the 

 blood corpuscles as can be verified by the 

 microscope, yet it is by no means proved 

 therewith, that where this takes place it de- 

 pends on a pathological condition ; indeed, 

 the blood corpuscles of different animals may 

 undergo dissolution in different ways. At 

 least thus much is certain, that in all animals, 

 without exception, stagnations of blood occur 

 in the spleen j and I might add, almost of a 

 certainty, in mammals, extravasations also. 

 In these stagnations, the blood globules may 

 dissolve themselves in the one case rapidly, 

 in the other case slowly , and thus, according 

 to the outer phenomenon, a difference will be 

 produced. Such an occurrence may be phy- 

 siological, since it is, at least in many animals, 

 visibly constant and very extensive ; and it 

 rnay have the greatest signification to the life 

 of the organism. Therefore, so long as the 

 pathological character of the phenomenon! s 

 not proved of a certainty, I am disposed to 

 hold fast by its physiological nature, and to 

 consider the dissolution of the blood cor- 

 puscles in the spleen as a normal fact. 



6. Bloodvessek of the spleen. The splenic 

 artery (arteria lienalis) springs from the 

 caeliac axis, and courses with many windings 

 between the layers of the gastro-colic liga- 

 ment until it reaches the fundus of the 

 stomach, where it enters the gastro- splenic 

 ligament, after giving off some small twigs 

 to the pancreas and the stomach. Arriving 

 in the neighbourhood of the hihis lienalis, 

 it divides into a superior and an inferior 

 branch. The upper of the two, passing 

 somewhat upwards, and giving backwards 

 from two to six short arteries (vasa brevia) 

 to the large extremity or pouch of the 

 stomach, divides into from three to six 

 branches, which, lying in a line one over 

 another, extend to the hilus, into which they 

 enter. The inferior branch is somewhat 

 larger than the others ; it passes- to the in- 

 ferior and anterior part of the spleen, sup- 

 plying it with three to six branches, which 

 enter the hilus in the same manner as the 

 others, and it ends finally as the gastro- 

 epiploica sinistra. Thus, all the six to twelve 

 branches which enter the spleen lie tolerably 

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