48 
Mr. Home on the 
its action propelled the blood, so that there was a systole and 
diastole in the spleen, as in the heart. 
Stukely, in his Gulstonian lecture, has very closely copied 
Malpighi, without giving any additional information. 
Cuvier, the latest writer on this subject, in his Legons d’Ana- 
tomie compares , corrects the error of Malpighi respecting the 
nature of the network, which he states to be composed of 
elastic ligament, and says that there are small corpuscles, 
whose use is unknown, and which disappear when the blood 
vessels are minutely injected. 
In the course of the present investigation, I have examined 
the spleen after death, under the ordinary circumstances, and 
have found the appearances described by Cuvier. I have also 
examined it frequently immediately after the stomach had 
received unusual quantities of liquids, and in that state have 
found invariably, that the corpuscles of Cuvier, which were 
the glands of Malpighi, are distinct cells, containing a fluid, 
which escapes when the cells are punctured, and renders their 
membranous coat visible, so that it would appear that the 
distension of these cells is connected with the state of the sto- 
mach, and therefore only takes place occasionally ; and that 
the elastic capsule by which the spleen is surrounded adapts 
the organ to these changes in its volume. 
On examining further into the structure of the spleen, in 
which I have been materially assisted by Mr. Brodie, the 
following facts have been ascertained. 
In the spleen of the bullock, horse, and hog, the cells, when 
the arteries and veins are injected with coloured size, are seen 
to have numerous arterial branches ramifying in their coats. 
