Volume 2

The physiology of the foetus, liver and spleen / [G.C. Holland].

  • George Calvert Holland
Date:
1831
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The physiology of the foetus, liver and spleen / [G.C. Holland]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    portion of the adipose matter, which it received by the absorbent power of those veins, and which imparted to it a great degree of vis- cidity, that without the diluting power of the splenic blood, which mixes with it when en- tering the vena portarum, it would be hable to concrete.” ‘These and a variety of other hypo- theses are disproved by direct experiments in- stituted by Dr. SAUNDERS. “ The result of these experiments,” he says, “ makes it highly probable, that the bile secreted after the loss of the spleen, differs in no respect from other bile; and that the liver, in the exercise of its functions, is perfectly independent on that viscus,” * Without multiplying proofs, it is evident that the spleen is not necessary for the func- tion which has been ascribed to it; for if it were indispensable to the perfect digestion of food, this process would be impeded or de- stroyed, whenever the stomach was deprived of its assistance, which however is not the case. But although we have not hitherto been suc- cessful in discovering the nature of its office, we are not to conclude, that it occupies its present * A Treatise on the Structure, Economy, and Diseases of the Liver, by WitL1aM Saunpers, M.D., F.R.S., & S. A. C
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