LEUKH^^MIA. 215 



from tlie spleen and lymphatic glands is not uniformly rapid at 

 all times. It is most active a short while after meals. This 

 increased activity coincides with that transient hyperemia of the 

 entire digestive tract which is caused by taking food, and which 

 manifests itself in the spleen more especially as a perceptible 

 intumescence of that organ. If w^e have the chance of examining 

 a spleen under such circumstances, we find, besides a marked 

 congestion of its pulp, a distinctly swollen condition of the 

 Malpighian bodies. The mesenteric glands too are larger and 

 contain more blood than usual. It is probable therefore that the 

 increased supply of blood occasions a more rapid production of 

 leucocytes in the Malpighian bodies of the spleen and in the 

 mesenteric glands. The newly-formed cells mingle with the 

 current of lymph or of blood as the case may be, and a transient 

 leucocytosis is the result ; no sooner however does the digestive 

 hyperjBmia of the abdominal viscera subside, than the lymphatic 

 organs on the one hand, and the composition of the blood on the 

 other, return to their normal state. 



§ 179. Leukhaemia too is commonly associated with an en- 

 largement of the lymphatic organs. The spleen here takes the 

 lead. By far the greater half of all leukhasmiaB are purely 

 splenic ; more rarely do we find the lymphatic glands diseased 

 together with the spleen ; and an exclusive affection of the 

 lymphatic glands is rarest of all. 



The leukhcemic spleen is originally a congested spleen. The 

 blood, flowing more slowly, accumulates mainly in those anasto- 

 motic channels of the pulp, which were first recognised by 

 Billroth as a part of the blood-path through the spleen, and 

 termed '' cavernous veins " on account of their easily demonstrable 

 connexion with the efferent vessels. The lymphoid parenchyma 

 of the pulp (the intervascular cords of Billroth) is also in- 

 volved in the process ; in addition to the usual colourless cells 

 of the spleen we find an unusual number of red corpuscles ; the 

 Malpighian bodies too arc enlarged, though the alteration in 

 their structure is not as yet very striking. With the naked eye, 

 besides the dark colour, diminished consistency, and increased 

 volume of the pulp, we perceive a distinctly lobed or rather 

 tuberous condition of the surface of the organ. Each of these 

 elevations corresponds to the area of distribution of a splenic 

 arteriole (j-tenicillus), while the intervening depressions coincide 



