368 MANUAL, OF PHYSIOLOGY. 



some. The varieties in size, form, and general appearance of the 

 red corpuscles can be accounted for by either their destruction or 

 their formation occurring in this organ. 



Its chemical composition also shows that certain special changes 

 go on in the pulp, and that probably stages of the construction 

 or destruction of haemoglobin are here accomplished may be 

 inferred from the peculiar association of iron with albuminous 

 bodies. 



From the characters of the blood flowing from the spleen it 

 has been argued that, besides an enormous production of white 



FIG. 163. 



/? 



Section of Spleen through a lymph follicle (Malpighian body) (a) injected 

 to show the vessel ; (c) entering the follicle, the lymphoid tissue of which is 

 pale in comparison with the pulp (6), the meshes of which ure filled with in- 

 jection. (Cadiat.) 



corpuscles, the destruction of the red disks goes on, while some 

 new disks are formed, probably by means of the white cells mak- 

 ing haemoglobin in their protoplasm, which, gradually disappear- 

 ing, leaves only the red mass of hsemoglobin. 



The increased activity of the spleen after meals, and in certain 

 abnormal states of the blood, as shown by its containing more 

 blood, distinctly points out that some form of blood elaboration 



