On the structure and uses of the spleen

Abstract

Mr. Home, in the course of his late investigation of the functions of the stomach, having observed that the pyloric and cardiac portions of that cavity were separated in many animals by a permanent divi­sion, and in most by at least a temporary muscular contraction, during the process of digestion; and having also found that the food in the pyloric portion has in general nearly the same consistence, was led to consider by what means the quantity of fluid frequently taken at meals could be absorbed from the cardiac portion; and he imagined the spleen, from its contiguity to the stomach, to be the most natural channel for that purpose. To ascertain whether liquids do really pass from the stomach by any other channel than the pylorus, that passage was secured by a ligature in a living dog, and five ounces of fluid coloured with indigo were injected into the stomach. At the end of half an hour, two ounces were brought up by vomiting; and the dog being killed, one ounce was found remaining in the stomach; so that two ounces had escaped. The spleen was turgid: and upon making a transverse section of it, the cut surface presented an appearance of molecules or vesicles of a white colour, surrounded by the small ramifications of the arteries and plexuses of small veins.