AFTER SPLENECTOMY. 389 



chief organs to which this process has been attributed. The 

 action on the liver was brought about by subcutaneous injec- 

 tion of oleum phosphoratum. The presence of much bile 

 pigment in the urine as well as the characteristic metabolic 

 changes before death gave evidence of the hepatic action of 

 the poison. Histological examination of the liver cells also 

 revealed pathological changes in that organ. The dog had 

 already received four injections of phosphorus oil during the 

 twelve days preceding those here recorded. 



CONCLUSION. 



Our experiments demonstrate that the spleen is by no 

 means the chief organ involved in uric acid production in the 

 living body, if indeed it normally plays any part whatever in 

 this process. After the exclusion of the liver and the spleen 

 it is natural to turn to other forms of lymphoid tissue, and 

 the lymphatic glands are at once suggested. It might be 

 supposed that after splenectomy these glands take up the 

 work of the spleen. Enlargement of the lymphatic glands 

 has been recorded after removal of the spleen in man. But 

 the very recent investigations of Vincent,* made to ascertain 

 this point in the dog, fail to bring to light any permanent 

 hypertrophy of the lymphatic glands after splenectomy. It' 

 seems improbable, therefore, that the formation of uric acid in 

 the mammalia can be assigned at present to any definite 

 organ, or groups of organs. 



* Vincent, Journal of Physiology, 1900, xxv, p. ii. 



