592 
WHAT IS THE USE OF THE SPLEEN ? 
in the body, are preserved. The results of his investiga- 
tions on cows, which were both numerous and extended over a 
long period of time, were on the whole unfavorable to Voit's 
views. — Ibid. 
WHAT IS THE USE OF THE SPLEEN ? 
This question is, we fear, yet unanswered, though Signor 
Bacelli has attempted its solution. He observes that in the 
intermissions of the first attacks of malarial fever there is 
frequently a great increase of appetite, which, however, is 
soon followed by a gastric catarrh, leading to a very complete 
loss of digestive power (known even to Celsus) for albumin- 
ous compounds. His researches have led him to believe that 
the increase of appetite at the commencement of the disease 
is due to simple hyperaemia of the spleen; whilst the dis- 
turbance of digestive power, occurring after repeated attacks, 
was attributable to the persistent hyperaemia of the organ 
producing physiological disturbance of its functions. The 
large veins of the spleen, he points out, are destitute of 
valves, and pass, imbedded in the pancreas, and therefore 
imbedded in the stomach, and in front of the spinal column, 
to the liver, so that the blood only traverses them unimpeded 
when the stomach is empty; whilst, when the stomach is full, 
the blood current is more or less completely arrested. During 
digestion, physiological enlargement of the spleen occurs ; 
and, partly owing to the contractility of the organ, and partly 
to the pressure by the stomach on its veins, its blood is re- 
turned by the vasa brevia and coronary veins. But he has 
found that from the splenic pulp, and from its venous blood, 
a juice can be obtained containing pepsine, and capable of 
digesting coagulated albumen. The spleen, he is therefore 
disposed to think, prepares from the disintegrated albuminates 
of the blood-corpuscles the pepsine that is afterwards secreted 
by the glands of the stomach. The hyperaemia of the spleen 
occurring at the commencement of the malarial intoxication 
occasions an increased secretory activity of the gastric peptic 
glands, and thus accounts for the increased appetite observed 
at this period ; but, at a later stage of the disease, the per- 
sistence of the hyperaemia causes stasis of the blood in the 
swollen spleen, accompanied by a kind of paralysis or func- 
tional disturbance, and the patient is no longer capable of 
digesting albuminoid food. — Ibid. 
