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Extirpation of the Spleen. 
In the meeting of the German naturalists and physicians at 
Berlin, on the 19th of September, 1823, Dr. Schultze of Freiburg, 
communicated the results of his researches relative to the functions 
of the spleen, and of the experiments he has made with respect to 
the extirpation of this organ. The following brief extract will, we 
trust, be interesting to our readers. 
The blood of the splenic veins, Dr. Schultze found as coagulable 
as other venous blood, except when, a short time before the expe- 
riment, a large quantity of fluid had been injected into the stomach. 
The extirpation of the spleen, which Dr. Schultze has very often 
performed, never proved fatal, and was hardly ever followed by 
any great derangement of the organic functions, even for several 
years after the operation. Nutrition and digestion were carried on 
as before, the secretion of bile only was diminished, but in a very 
slight degree ; the chyle of animals, on which the operation had 
been performed a considerable time previously, was found to 
coagulate, and to become red in the same manner as that taken 
from healthy animals. This seems to be inconsistent with Hewson’s 
opinion as to the function of the spleen ; Sir Everard Home’s 
theory is refuted by the circumstance, that the animals drunk as 
much water after as before the operation. The growth of young 
animals was not at all checked by it ; and young cats and dogs 
very soon regained in weight what they had lost by the removal 
of the spleen. Next to the secretion of bile, the author observed 
a constant effect on the generative powers ; which, although not 
completely suspended, were, in some degree, weakened by it ; 
dogs and cats, from which the spleen had been extracted soon after 
birth, always produced fewer young ones than others*. The very 
ancient and general opinion, that extirpation of the spleen is fol- 
lowed by an increased faculty of running, Dr. Schultze found 
always correct, at least in dogs. 
* In most of the numerous cases where the partial or total extirpation of the 
spleen has been performed on human individuals, the generative powers re- 
mained unaltered. Haller, however, (Elem. Physiol., tom. vi. p. 423,) relates 
a case in which the operation was followed by sterility. 
VETERINARY OBITUARY. 
We have this month to record with regret the death of two 
respected members of our professional body, Mr. Delabere Blaine 
and Mr. Charles Clark. Of the former we hope, at some future 
period, to present our readers with a biographical sketch. 
