42 Th. Lewis, 



of the spleen and other hsemolymph glands, to so reduce hgemogiobin 

 to iron free compounds. Latschenberger ') found that, twelve hours 

 after the injection of defibrated blood subcutaneously, in the horse, 

 the tissues contained a substance in flakes varying in colour from 

 darh orange to bright yelloiv, composed of small spherical masses, 

 about a quarter the size of red corpuscles, ivhich gave Gmelin^s reaction 

 readily. It is highly probable that the pigment present in hnemo- 

 lymph glands is identical with that found by Latschenberger. 



5. Relative degree of activity, as regards Phagocytosis, of the spleen 

 and hcemal gkmds of the rat. 



The haemal glands of certain animals are so conspicuous, that a 

 comparison of their united weight, with that of the spleen and that of 

 the whole body, is of interest. 



I was at first inclined to regard the function of haemal glands 

 as subsidiary to that of the spleen, but after an examination of 

 numerous sections of the latter organ, I believe that the process of 

 blood destruction occurs in the haemal glands, of the rat at all events, 

 to an extent exceeding the similar process in the spleen. Vincent and 

 Harrison noticed the similarity, between the process occuring in the 

 two varieties of organ; they are more than similar, they are identical, 

 and the above description of the phenomena of phagocytosis will 

 apply equally to the spleen or haemal glands. 



Whereas only a few scattered phagocytes are found in the spleen, 

 these cells form the most conspicuous cells in the hcemal glands of the 

 rat, and I am of opinion, although estimates of this kind can naturally 

 be but approximate, that blood destruction proceeds, to a far larger 

 extent, in a single haemal gland in the rat than in the entire spleen. 

 When it is considered that often as many as 10 — 15 such glands 

 may be found in a rat, the extreme importance of these glands, as 

 destroyers of blood, can no longer be doubted. 



The following is the result of a number of estimations of the weight 

 of the haemal glands, compared with that of the spleen and body weight: 



>) Monatsh. f. Chem. Wien 1888. Bd. IX. S. 52; Sitzungsber. d. k. Akad. d. 

 Wissensch. Wien 1888. Bd. XLVII. Abt. 2 b. S. 15. 



