SPLEEN. 



793 



of the splenic vein of many individuals con- 

 tained numerous golden yellow cells with 

 diminished blood globules. In the same 

 blood, and in the splenic pulp, there also 

 occurred, either sparingly or in uncommon 

 quantity, rod-shaped crystalline corpuscles, of 

 a yellow colour, and a length of 4 to 6-1000ths 

 of a line : at the first glance they seemed to be 

 lying altogether free, and they were dissolved 

 by potash (Jig. 538, b). On the application of 

 water a membrane was upraised from these 



Fig. 538. 



Similar blood corpuscles from the Spleen and Splenic 



vein of the fresh-water Perch. 

 a, crystals and nuclei seen on treating colourless 

 nucleated blood corpuscles with water ; b, crystals 

 apparently free. 



small rods, and near them a nucleus came into 

 view (jig. 538, a). On more accurate in- 

 quiry, it plainly appeared that these small 

 rods lie in decolorized blood globules, and in 

 unchanged blood globules the gradual form- 

 ation of one, or even two, of these may be 

 followed. In Barbus Jluviatilis, the spleen 

 pulp contains an enormous quantity of really 

 free crystals ; these are of a violet and reddish 

 colour, and of a nail or spindle-shaped form ; 

 and on the application of acetic acid, they are 

 completely dissolved, leaving some colour 

 behind. Crystals such as these also occurred 

 sparingly in the kidneys, the liver, and the 

 blood of the heart. In this animal, as well as 

 in Cyprinus brama, the blood contained yellow 

 granule-cells, like those which occur in the 

 spleen and kidneys. All the rod-shaped 

 yellow corpuscles just named (of which the 

 first, indeed, are nothing but crystals) must 

 in any case consist of a substance allied to 

 the hasmatin of the blood ; and possibly they 

 consist of the substance which Virchow has 

 lately named haematoidin, with which they 

 correspond in some respects. Their occur- 

 rence in the spleen is physiologically inter- 

 esting, and so also is their formation within 

 the blood corpuscles, while at the same time 

 it affords a very plain indication of the rela- 

 tion of haematin to them. 



7. Lymphatics. The views of authors con- 

 cerning the lymphatics of the spleen are very 

 contradictory, since one class have the prece- 

 dent of Haller for altogether denying their 

 existence in the human spleen, while others 

 have stated their existence in abundance, and 

 have constituted the spleen, in a certain mea- 

 sure, a large lymphatic ganglion. This differ- 

 ence mainly depends hereon, that the one class 

 have specially examined the human spleen, while 

 others have chiefly drawn their conclusions 

 from that of the lower animals, considerable 

 differences in respect of these vessels existing 

 in different creatures. In man, the lymphatics 



of the spleen are, at any rate, in utterly in" 

 considerable quantity, being rather less nu" 

 merous than in other glandular organs, as the 

 liver and kidneys, and not at all so numerous 

 as in the lymphatic glands. They are divi- 

 sible into superficial and deep. The former 

 course, in sparing numbers, between the two 

 coats of the spleen, and form in this situation 

 delicate trunks, which anastomose with each 

 other ; but, excepting in perfectly healthy 

 spleens, and in the neighbourhood of the hilus, 

 they can scarcely be recognised. The latter 

 lie in sparing numbers in the hilus, and in the 

 sheaths of the vessels, where they accompany 

 the arteries, although they cannot be traced 

 so far as there. Both sets of these vessels 

 pass to the gastro-splenic omentum, to enter 

 the small lymphatic glands placed there ; and 

 finally they collect to a trunk which opens 

 into the thoracic duct, at about the eleventh 

 or twelfth dorsal vertebra. All these lymph- 

 atic vessels can only be thus seen in the quite 

 fresh and undeteriorated spleens of executed 

 criminals or subjects killed by accidents, al- 

 though they may often be recognised in parti- 

 cular parts of the healthy spleen after natural 

 death, especially if the vessels be tied and the 

 spleen soaked in water. But, on the other 

 hand, in diseased spleens it is very rare to see 

 even a trace of them, unless a preparation be 

 made of a small gland in the gastro-splenic 

 ligament, in which case small entering and 

 emerging trunks may be recognised. 



In the lower animals, or at least in many of 

 them, the lymphatics seem to be more nume- 

 rous. Moreschi distended the lymphatics of 

 the spleen in fishes (in whom they possess no 

 valves) from the trunk, and he says that the in- 

 jected spleen appeared to consist almost solely 

 of a network of absorbents. But in another 

 place he freely states that the spleen consists, so 

 to speak, of nothing but vessels. In a Testudo 

 mydaSy Tiedemann and Gmelin saw all the 

 absorbents of the small intestine going to the 

 spleen, in which, by interlacing with arteries 

 and veins, they formed a network. From 

 this network large branches, like the emer- 

 gent vessels of the lymphatic glands, took 

 their course towards the thoracic duct. Al- 

 most all the older writers recognised the rich- 

 ness of the spleen in lymphatics, which later 

 examiners have but confirmed. But it will 

 be well to set forth one fact which, in my 

 opinion, is not sufficiently estimated, namely 

 that even here absorbents are only sparingly 

 present in the interior of the spleen ; at least I 

 have found this to be the case in the pig, ox, 

 sheep, &c. Here the superficial lymphatics 

 are, as is well known, very numerous, and 

 this fact seems to me to correspond with the 

 circumstance that in these animals the serous 

 and fibrous coats are only loosely connected 

 to each other, and contain many vessels in 

 the loose areolar tissue between them. But, 

 on the other hand, if the vessels in the 

 hilus be examined, only a few scattered 

 trunks can be seen, a condition which stands 

 in extraordinary contrast with the very nu- 

 merous lymphatics of the coats. Thus, for 



