xiv THE LYMPH 555 



hepatic coronaries are three branches of one trunk, the coeliac 

 artery, and that in proportion, as the inflow of blood through the 

 splenic artery is easy or difficult, the blood supply to the stomach 

 and liver must diminish or increase. Drosdotf and Botschet- 

 schkaroff saw by direct observation that the contraction of the 

 spleen induces increased blood supply to the liver. On stimulating 

 the previously divided nerves of the splenic plexus, and thus 

 producing a marked contraction of the spleen, the amount of 

 blood that flows from a puncture previously made on the surface 

 of the liver is conspicuously increased. 



Little has been added to these positive data in regard to 

 the various physiological functions of the spleen, from the results 

 of the recent methodical researches on the consequences of its 

 extirpation. Galen and Pliny were already aware that the spleen 

 can be excised without danger to the animal. The first splenectomy 

 performed on man was by Zaccarelli, in 1549. Morgagni mentions 

 a woman whose spleen was removed in consequence of its protrusion 

 from an abdominal wound, and who survived the operation for 

 five years, and subsequently became a mother. 



Innumerable experiments have been made in this direction, 

 and there is probably no physiologist who has not successfully 

 attempted the extirpation of the spleen at various times, either on 

 dogs or rabbits. After the introduction of antiseptics, many 

 surgeons performed the operation on man with a therapeutic 

 object. Its want of success in cases of leucaemia, of amyloid 

 degeneration, and of circulatory stasis in the organ is no evidence 

 that the spleen is essential to human life, while the many 

 successful operations (66 per cent, according to Vulpius) in cases 

 of wandering spleen, simple hypertrophy, suppuration, cysts, 

 sarcomata, etc., show, on the contrary, that it is possible to sur- 

 vive splenectomy with no ill consequences, provided other serious 

 lesions are not present. 



Not merely can animals resist splenectomy, but it has been 

 demonstrated by the experiments of Tizzoni (1884) on rabbits, 

 of Kurlow (1862) on guinea-pigs, of Dastre (1893) on young- 

 puppies, kittens, guinea-pigs, and mice that this operation neither 

 perceptibly retards development, nor does it impair the repro- 

 ductive capacity. 



On counting the blood-corpuscles before and after splenectomy 

 in dogs (Emelianow, 1893), rabbits, and goats (Vulpius, 1894), 

 a relative diminution of erythrocytes and increase of leucocytes 

 has been observed. The same fact has often been noted in regard 

 to man, when splenectomy has been performed, especially in the 

 cases referred to by Crede, Kocher, Severanu, and Czerny. This 

 is the only fact that could be invoked in support of the theory 

 that many leucocytes are transformed into erythrocytes in the 

 spleen, by taking up or forming haemoglobin, with expulsion of 



