652 Organic Pitysks. [August, 



gland will be molecular reproductions of all the tissues which 

 send lymph into that gland. Thus the group of glands in the 

 arm-pit may yield leucocytes representing the whole arm ; those 

 in the groin, the whole leg; those in the neck, the whole 

 head, &c. 



In such an office we have a sufficient and most important duty 

 for the lymphatic system and its numerous glands. The stream 

 of lymph poured into the blood conveys leucocytes each of 

 which represents in its molecular organization some extensive 

 region of the body. An important duty remains yet to be per- 

 formed; the combination of these leucocytes into generalized 

 representatives of the whole body. And the blood system has a 

 series of glandular organs which are perhaps devoted to this duty 



There are no organs of the body which have been a greater 

 puzzle to physiologists than these ductless glands of the blood 

 vessels, the spleen, thyroid, supra renal, &c. Many efforts have 

 been made to explain them, but all that is really known is, that 

 they favor the growth of leucocytes and cause a decrease in the 

 number of red blood corpuscles. This is the only duty that can 

 be ascribed to the principal of these glands, the spleen. Not the 

 least puzzling thing about them is that they seem to have nothing 

 to do with the health and vigor of the body. They may be ex- 

 tirpated and life go on as before without a check. There ' is cer- 

 tainly something very significant in this fact. It is incredible that 

 such organs should be utterly without vital office in the body, 

 and it is certain that no other internal portions of the body of the 

 same size could be removed without serious injury. Perhaps if 

 the effect upon the reproductive powers of the extirpation of the 

 spleen had been investigated, some important results might have 

 been discovered, for the action of the ductless glands in the in- 

 crease of leucocytes appears to indicate that they are concerned 

 solely with reproduction, and have nothing to do with the indi- 

 vidual life of the body. 



The duty of these closed glands, then, may be that of com- 

 bining the corpuscular representatives of the different organs into 

 corpuscular representatives of the body as a whole. The disap- 

 pearance of the red blood cells may indicate a vigorous nutritive 

 action of the leucocytes, and in the rapid and continuous flow of 

 the blood through these glands, the best developed cells may 



