THE EFFECT OF SPLENECTOMY ON THE HEMOPOIETIC SYSTEM OF MACACUS RHESUS

Abstract

The diversity of the reported results of splenectomy in different species of animals has been a striking feature in publications on this subject,¹ and has contributed to a rather widely held view that comparatively little is known in regard to the functions of the spleen. Nowhere is this fluctuation of opinions and prevalent agnosticism better shown than in the editorials of the Journal of the American Medical Association.² Recognizing that much still remains to be learned about the various functions of this complex organ, and (as is usually the case when advances are being made in any given field) that not a few observations by different investigators are at variance, nevertheless, it should be recognized that material progress has been made, and in the relation of the spleen to blood formation and blood destruction, at least, a number of positive facts can be accepted, as we have tried to show