The cat - an introduction to the study of backboned animals, especially mammals (1881) (20593316291)

Title: The cat : an introduction to the study of backboned animals, especially mammals

Identifier: catintroduction00miva (find matches)

Year: 1881 (1880s)

Authors: Mivart, St. George Jackson, 1827-1900

Subjects: Cats; Anatomy, Comparative

Publisher: New York : Scribner's

Contributing Library: The Library of Congress

Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

Text Appearing Before Image:

238 THE CAT. (CHAP. VIII. other ductless glands are the various lymphatic glands already- spoken of in the last chapter. § 17. Another viscus, and one of large size, is akin in nature to the lymphatic glands. This is a large ductless organ already men- tioned as lying in the abdomen in the vicinity of the pancreas, close to the left side of the stomach. It is called the spleen. It is some- what variable as to shape and size, generally in the form of an elongated triangle, somewhat bent on itself, of a dark bluish colour, lying immediately behind the diaphragm. It is convex and smooth on its left side and concave on the side which is applied to the stomach, which is marked by a vertical fissure, called the Mlus, where the vessels and nerves pass into and out from its substance. Besides the peritoneum, the spleen is invested with a fibrous and very elastic coat which, at the hilus, is reflected into the body of the viscus, forming sheaths and canals for the large blood-vessels

Text Appearing After Image:

st. Wall of stomach Fig. 113.—The Spleen. py. Pyloric portion of stomach and nerves which ramify within it. Thus is formed a highly dis- tensible framework composed of areolar tissue, with a large quantity of elastic fibres. Amongst these elastic structures, with their vessels, is the red pulpy substance of the spleen. This is formed of nucleated and non-nucleated granular bodies, amongst which are scattered numerous whitish vesicles, called Malpighian corpuscles of the spleen, attached like buds to the sides of the minute branches of the arteries, and each composed of a fibrous bag enclosing granular nucleated corpuscles. The function of the spleen is so far related to alimentation that the organ begins to dilate while digestion progresses, reaching its largest dimension after a meal; while later, if no fresh food be taken, it becomes reduced to its smallest size. A very remarkable fact, however, about the spleen is that it can be entirely extirpated without its loss producing any strikingly injurious effect. The function usually attributed to it is that of helping to replenish the nutritious fluid by forming lymph cells, which pass from it directly into the blood. Much obscurity, however, still remains as to the entire part it plays in the activities of life, and as to what may be really its main function.

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1881

Library of Congress

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