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SEITAKO GOTO. 



which no spleen tissue can be seen with the naked eye. The other 

 spleen is larger, ellipsoidal in shape, and is close to the rectum, as in 

 normal specimens. The two taken together would be about equal in size 

 to a normal spleen. 



Each spleen is supplied by an artery, which branches off from the 

 anterior mesenteric artery at some distance from each other, there being a 

 branch that goes to the intestine between them. The larger spleen is 

 supplied with three veins, which branch off from the intestinal portion of 

 the portal vein, one after another. The most anterior branch is the largest, 

 and on arriving at the hilus of the right spleen, sends out several branches 

 into the substance of the spleen, while its direct continuation passes on to 

 the left (smaller) spleen. The other two veins supply only the right 

 spleen. 



Divided and accessory spleens have been described in the human 

 subject by Albrecht ['96], Haberer [ : 01], Fürst [ : 02], Helly [ : 03], and, 

 according to Furst's reference, also by Moser, and Marchand and Perls.* 

 According to these writers the occurrence of these spleens appears to be 

 not very rare. Haberer [:oi, p 49] has set up two categories for these 

 abnormal structures, viz, lien succenturiatus and lien accessorius. The 

 first includes those cases in which the supernumerary spleens are to be 

 regarded as having been derived by constriction from the main one ; while 

 the second includes those which can not be so regarded, and are usually 

 found in the hilus or at a more distant place, but for which we can not at 

 present assign any definite cause. Fürst [ : 02, p. 493] attributes the 

 formation of such a divided spleen as the one observed by him to inhibition 

 in the process of concentration, which takes place during the development 

 of the organ. It appears to me that the case before us can not well be 

 brought under Haberer's first group, because the two spleens are separated 

 by a rather wide space and we have no evidence that they were at any 

 time united. On the other hand, it is quite possible or even probable that 

 for some unknown cause there were two centres of segregation in the 



* Cori's communication of 1896, which, judging from the title, must contain a case closely 

 similar to the one here described, is unfortunately not accessible to me. 



