SPLEEN. 



799 



reaction, and have found that without ex- 

 ception it has an energetic acid reaction. This 

 appeared to me very extraordinary, and the 

 more so when I thought of the great quan- 

 tity of blood which the organ contains ; and I 

 was already captivated by the conjecture that 

 this acid reaction might be of great import- 

 ance. But I found that litmus paper was 

 just as much reddened by the liver and 

 kidneys of the calf and rabbit ; and, further, 

 that the muscular substance of the heart and 

 the muscles of the trunk have the same effect. 

 So that this acid reaction appears to be a 

 general phenomenon, which is probably due 

 to the fact, that the acids lately found by 

 Liebig in muscle (lactic and inosic acids) 

 also occur elsewhere. At any rate since 

 there is as yet no exact chemical analysis of 

 the spleen, I cannot express myself con- 

 cerning the import of this vigorously acid re- 

 action of its parenchyma ; although it is very 

 conceivable, that the acid reaction does not 

 depend on the same causes in all organs. 



As regards the time at which the blood 

 globules experience their dissolution in the 

 spleen, nothing definite can at present be 

 said ; but my theory appears at least to pre- 

 suppose, that this process especially comes to 

 pass some time after the reception of nutri- 

 ment, since I have found the spleen of the 

 greatest size in animals at about the time of 

 five to twelve hours after eating, the same 

 time at which the visible changes of the blood 

 globules were most marked. The cause of 

 this phenomenon seems to be, that the vo- 

 lume of the blood is increased after each time 

 of taking food, and especially that a great num- 

 ber of new cells enter from the chyle. And 

 if an equal weight is to remain in the organism, 

 then, on the other hand, just as many elements 

 of the blood must be dissolved, as there have 

 new ones entered into it ; and this is ex- 

 actly what happens in the spleen. Besides, I 

 am not anxious to maintain that the spleen 

 may not become distended, and blood glo- 

 bules undergo dissolution, at other times 

 than those just mentioned ; probably the con- 

 ditions of the liver have also a great influence 

 upon the events in the spleen, so that in 

 hyperaemia of the liver, the spleen becomes also 

 distended ; and so likewise the nervous sys- 

 tem may be interested therein. Beclard, who 

 has also found many variations in the blood 

 globules contained in the blood of the splenic 

 vein, is unable to assign any definite cause for 

 these varieties, and only remarks, that in the 

 case of a blood rich in blood globules, the 

 amount of these lost in the spleen was greater 

 than in the opposite case. So that it must be 

 left to the future to bring to light the more 

 special relations of the dissolution of the 

 blood globules in the spleen, 



I have hitherto said nothing concerning the 

 function of the Malpighian corpuscles of the 

 spleen. I do not regard their function as at all a 

 peculiar one, since ( 1 .), in many animals, as fishes 

 and naked amphibia, these corpuscles are ab- 

 sent ; 2. their constituents exactly correspond 

 with those of the parenchyma of the spleen. 



I believe that the parenchyma-cells and the 

 cells of the Malpighian corpuscles play exactly 

 the same part, although I am just as little 

 able as my predecessors to say with certainty 

 what this is. If they are not subservient to 

 the formation of a special fluid which takes a 

 part in the solution of the blood corpuscles, 

 I should be almost inclined to ascribe to the 

 parenchyma-cells the mechanical use of form- 

 ing in the first place a soft parenchyma in 

 which the minute vessels can extend at their 

 pleasure ; and nextly, that they, as well as the 

 elements of the Malpighian corpuscles, are 

 simply expressions of the fact, that the spleen, 

 as a highly vascular organ, is everywhere 

 permeated by a fluid which is very rich in 

 plastic matters. At the same time, it may be 

 imagined that all these cells elaborate the 

 fluid in which they are soaked, and after a 

 certain kind of assimilation, again part with it, 

 and through the blood and lymph vessels 

 transmit it to the general circulation. The 

 swelling up of the Malpighian corpuscles after 

 the use of food is quite consonant with this 

 notion. But whether this fluid is of a pe- 

 culiar nature, and of different properties from 

 that of other organs, we can only know from 

 future chemical researches ; and then only 

 can it be determined, whether or no we are to 

 ascribe to it a special signification. 



If the spleen be the only or even the chief 

 organ in which blood globules undergo their 

 dissolution, in either case the part which they 

 enact in the organism is by no means the 

 subordinate one which many have hitherto 

 considered it ; but one which is very full of 

 import. And the results afforded by vivisec- 

 tions and by pathology are by no means so 

 contradictory to this expression as they are 

 generally maintained to be. It is true that 

 the spleen of animals may be excised without 

 causing their death, a fact which I have my- 

 self repeatedly witnessed ; it is also certain, 

 that men can live without spleens, or with 

 spleens completely atrophied, or rendered 

 functionally useless by degeneration ; nay, in 

 many cases, may live without any disturb- 

 ance at all, a circumstance which is also true 

 of animals. But what does this prove ? 

 Nothing at all ; for if the spleen fails, then 

 indeed other organs undertake its functions, 

 and discharge them vicariously for it. Pro- 

 bably in these cases the bloo'cl globules un- 

 dergo dissolution in the general mass of the 

 blood, or possibly in the liver. But if this be 

 so, the spleen is surely not therefore devoid of 

 import or function. With equal correctness 

 might we say, that one kidney is superfluous, 

 because in certain cases an hypertrophied 

 kidney enacts the part of both ; or might re- 

 gard kidneys generally as devoid of import, 

 because certain rare instances of rnisdevelope- 

 ment are narrated, in which the skin or the 

 thoracic glands have undertaken the excre- 

 tion of the urinary constituents. If the spleen 

 is not the only organ in which blood cor- 

 puscles undergo dissolution, it is possible that 

 these are destroyed in some small quantity in 

 the capillaries of all the organs of the body. 



