2. Handbuch der Physiologischen Chemie. Von Professor Dr. C. G. LEHMANN A Manual of Physiological Chemistry. By Professor LEHMANN 3. The Bakerian Lecture, on Osmotic Force: delivered at the Royal Society. By Professor GRAHAM, F.R.S., Corresponding Member of the Institute of France. REV. IX.-Epilepsy and other Affections of the Nervous System, which are marked by Tremor, Convulsion, or Spasm: their Pathology and Treatment. By CHARLES BLAND RADCLIFFE, M.D., &c., &c. REV. X.-Cases of Bright's Disease, with Remarks. By SAMUEL WILKS, M.D. Lond. REV. XII.-Bericht über die elektro-physiologischen Arbeiten des Dr. DUCHENNE, de Boulogne, zu Paris. Von Dr. HERMANN EBERHARD RICHTER. (Schmidt's Jahr- Report upon the Electro-physiological Researches of Dr. DUCHENNE. By Dr. H. E. RICHTER. (Schmidt's Jahrbuch' for October, 1853) 2. Die Electricität in ihrer Anwendung auf Practische Medicin. Von Dr. MORITZ Electricity in its Application to Practical Medicine. By Dr. MORITZ MEYER, of 3. Histoire de l'Electricité Médicale. Par M. J. GUITARD, M.D., Président de la History of Medical Electricity. By M. J. GUITARD, M.D., Toulouse. 1854 4. De l'Action Thérapeutique de l'Electrisation Localisée dans le Traitement des Pa ralysies Consécutives à l'Hémorrhagie Cérébrale. Par M. le Dr. DUCHENNE, de Boulogne. (Bulletin Général de Thérapeutique Médicale et Chirurgicale,' Mars Un the Therapeutic Action of Topical Electrisation in the Treatment of Paralysis, consecutive to Cerebral Hæmorrhage. By Dr. DUCHENNE 5. Heilung der Impotentia virilis, mittels Electricität. Von Dr. B. SCHULZ, in Wien. REV. XIII.-Census of Ireland for the Year 1851. Part III. Report on the Status of Disease. By W. DONNELLY and W. R. WILDE. Presented to Parliament . REV. XIV.-1. De cognoscendis et curandis Placentæ Morbis. WILDE. 2. Handbuch der Speciellen Pathologischen Anatomie. Von CARL ROKITANSKY 3. Lectures on the Theory and Practice of Midwifery. By ROBERT LEE, M.D. 4. Ueber die Krankheiten des Eies und der Placenta. GIERSE und H. MECKEL. (Verhandl. der Ges. für Geburtsk.') . 5. Abhandlungen über den Bau der Molen. Von H. MÜLLER . 6. Ueber den Bau der Molen. METTENHEIMER. (Müller's Archiv,' 1850) 7. Note sur les Altérations du Placenta. Par CHARLES ROBIN. (Archives Gén. de ib. ib. ib. ART. 1.-1. A System of Instruction in Quantitative Chemical Analysis. By Dr. C. R. FRESENIUS. Second Edition. Edited by J. LLOYD BULLOCK, F.C.S. 2. A Course of Practical Chemistry, arranged for the Use of Medical Students. By WILLIAM ODLING, M.B., F.C.S., Professor of Practical Chemistry and of Natural ib. 3. Anleitung zur Qualitativen und Quantitativen Zoocheinischen Analyse. Von E. VON GORUP-BESANEZ. Zweite Auflage Guide to Qualitative and Quantitative Zoo-chemical Analysis 4. Anleitung zur Qualitativen und Quantitativen Analyse des Harns. Von CARL Guide to the Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of the Urine ART. II.-Lectures on the Diseases of Infancy and Childhood. By CHARLES WEST, M.D., Physician to the Hospital for Sick Children. Third Edition ART. III.-A Practical Treatise on the Diseases of the Eye. By WILLIAM MACKENZIE, ART. IV. On the Topical Medication of the Larynx in Certain Diseases of the Respira- tory and Vocal Organs. By EBEN. WASTON, M.D., Lecturer on the Institutes of Medicine in the Andersonian University, &c. ART. V.-A Treatise on Diseases of the Lungs, having especial reference to Consumption. By ANTHONY WILLIAM CLARKE, M. D. ART. VI.-Principles of Comparative Physiology. By WILLIAM B. CARPENTER, M.D., ART. VII.-Transactions of the Pathological Society. ART. VIII-A Disquisition on Certain Parts and Properties of the Blood. By DAVID ART. XI.--Lectures on Polarized Light. By the late JONATHAN PEREIRA, M.D., F.R.S., F.L.S. Second Edition. Edited by the Rev. BADEN POWELL, M.A., V.P.R.S. ART. I.-The Blood-its Chemistry, Physiology, and Pathology. By THOMAS WILLIAMS, M.D. Lond., Licenciate of the Royal College of Physicians; formerly Demonstrator on Structural Anatomy at Guy's Hospital, and now of Swansea ART. II. The Pathology of Insanity. By JOHN CHARLES BUCKNILL, M.D. Lond., ART. III. Scarlatinal Dropsy. By JOHN W. TRIPE, M.D. ART. IV.—A Nosological Inquiry into the Acute Diseases of the Chest known to the Greeks, viz., the Pleuritis and the Peripneumonia; with Remarks upon the Peri- pneumonia Notha of the Moderns. By W. T. GAIRDNER, M.D., Lecturer on the THE BRITISH AND FOREIGN MEDICO-CHIRURGICAL REVIEW. JANUARY, 1855. PART FIRST. Analytical and Critical Reviews. REVIEW I. On the Structure and Use of the Spleen. By HENRY GRAY, F. R. S., Demonstrator of Anatomy, and Surgical Curator of the Pathological Museum, at St. George's Hospital. London, 1854. 8vo. pp. 380. With Sixty-five Wood Engravings. WHATEVER may be thought of the merits of the system of prize essays in the abstract, little hesitation can be felt by any member of the medical profession in affirming, that the institution of the Astley Cooper Prize has been highly advantageous to science, as well as honorable to the gentlemen to whom it has been successively awarded. To the admirable essays of Mr. Simon on the Thymus Gland, and of Mr. Wharton Jones on Inflammation, a third has now been added, which is certainly second to neither of its predecessors as to the evidence it gives of well-directed and laborious research, and which contributes many valuable materials towards the elucidation of the quæstio vexata that forms its subject. That Mr. Gray should have entirely succeeded in overcoming the difficulties of the investigation, and should have attained the full solution of a problem which has baffled so many able and zealous inquirers, it would be scarcely fair to expect; and we think it just to our author, as well as to our readers, to intimate at the outset, that whilst he has done much, he has also left much undone,-some of those very conclusions which he thinks he has most satisfactorily attained, being, to our minds, the most problematical. ness. The interest and importance of the subject, and the desire we feel, both on Mr. Gray's account, and for the sake of science, that the value of his labors should be justly appreciated, render it necessary that we should analyse his account of them with some minuteIt is prefaced by a Historical Introduction, in which we naturally expected to find a complete summary of the anatomical results obtained, and the physiological doctrines propounded, by all the principal inquirers who have preceded the author in the same line of investigation. But whilst very full in regard to the speculative opinions of the older writers, which can now be only referred-to as antiquarian curiosities, it gives but scanty information as to the labours of the most recent and pains-taking investigators. The memoir of Dr. Julian Evans, published in 1844, on the Microscopic Anatomy of the Spleen, is mentioned with deserved commendations, and a summary is given of its contents; but of the numerous and important researches which have been subsequently made in the same direction, especially by Dr. Sanders and Professor Kölliker, scarcely any notice is here taken; some of their physiological conclusions being alone cited. It is true that these later researches are occasionally adverted-to by way of comparison, in the account of the author's own investigations; but it would have been far more convenient, as well as more satisfactory, had the historical summary been carried down to the date of his essay. And it would have also added greatly to the value of the book, had some notice been taken of the recent labors of Remak and Leydig, in preparing the essay for the press. The Development of the Spleen is traced out with such completeness and detail, as to leave little for any one else to accomplish. The results of Mr. Gray's investigations on this subject had been partly communicated to the Royal Society, and published in the Philosophical Transactions' for 1852, in connexion with his parallel researches on theDevelopment of the Ductless Glands' generally, of which we gave an account at the time; but we find many important details here, which that paper does not contain; and there are, besides, several interesting illustrations. The first point established by Mr. Gray, is the original distinctness of the spleen from the pancreas, which he states to be very evident at the first appearance of the two organs, each arising from its own mass of blastema, although the increased size of both organs subsequently causes them to approximate so closely, as to have given rise in the minds of some of our best embryologists, to the idea that they formed but a single blended mass. Like other organs, the spleen is at first a homogeneous collection of nuclei and granular matter, which is developed in a fold of the intestinal lamina; and which gradually undergoes increase and differentiation, whereby the several tissues and structures of the organ are evolved; part of these elements becoming developed into fibrous tissue to form the capsule and trabeculæ, part giving origin to blood vessels and blood, whilst the greater part remains but little changed, to form the essential component of the organ, the "pulp-tissue." The Malpighian vesicles, which are such characteristic components of the spleen of the higher vertebrata, are not developed in the chick until near the completion of the period of incubation; being first seen as clusters of nuclei and fine granules, at the angles of division of the smaller bloodvessels, and upon the walls of the vessels themselves, to which they closely adhere; they are at first unenclosed in a special investing membrane, and do not acquire a proper envelope of any kind until some days after incubation has been completed. The following important physiological conclusions are drawn by Mr. Gray from the developmental history of the spleen : "First, the small size of the spleen in the foetus, as compared with its proportionate increase after birth, tends to show that it is not an organ the function of which is mainly exercised during intrauterine life. Second, the entire absence of any evidence, either of the formation of the blood-discs in the spleen (after its connexion with the general vascular system is effected), or of their disintegration, shows, I think, that it is neither a blood-forming nor a blooddestroying gland, at least during fatal life. Third, in the pulp-parenchyma, a distinct process of cell-growth, of ripening, and of cell-destruction has been observed, and these processes have been seen to occur concomitant with the evolution of the vessels of the gland; that of cellgrowth occurring with extreme rapidity as soon as the arteries which supply the organ are formed; then that of ripening, and of cell-destruction, taking place to the greatest extent up to, and during the time that the development of the splenic veins takes place. This would seem to show that some secretion took place in the gland, which became collected in it, ready to be removed by the veins as soon as their development should occur. Such a process is always to be found going on in man and animals, though ever varying in extent at all periods." (pp. 70, 71.) Mr. Gray further mentions the important fact, that a distinct yellowish-green bile is found in the gall-bladder of the foetal chick, at a period considerably antecedent to the development of the splenic vein, and its connexion with the vena portæ; so that the colouring matter of the bile cannot be formed, as supposed by Kölliker, entirely at the expense of blood-corpuscles which have undergone disintegration in the spleen. Vol. xii., p. 541. |