General anæmia, debility, wasting diseases, starvation, hæmorrhage,
stimulus to formation of red globules, asphyxia, electricity, cold,
quinine, eucalyptus, ergot. Symptoms: lack of eosinophile leucocytes
in the blood of a debilitated subject may lead to suspicion.
Treatment: tonic, light, sunshine, pure air, exercise, nutritive food,
iron, bitters.
In cases of general anæmia the spleen is liable to be small, shrunken,
wrinkled, and when cut the surface is drier and lighter colored than in
the normal condition. This condition may be seen after old standing
debilitating diseases, but is common in animals that have been reduced
by starvation, just as the opposite condition of hyperæmia and
enlargement comes of abundance of rich food and an active digestion. It
may shrink temporarily as the result of profuse hemorrhage, but
Bizzozero and Salvioli found that several days after such loss of blood
it became enlarged and its parenchyma contained many red nucleated
hæmatoblasts. The result of hemorrhage is therefore to stimulate the
organ to enlargement and to the resumption of its embryonic function of
producing red blood globules. Contraction of the spleen further occurs
under asphyxia, the deoxidized blood being supposed to operate through
the medulla oblongata. As already noted the spleen shrinks under
stimulation of the central end of a sensory nerve (vagus, sciatic). An
induced current of electricity applied to the skin over the spleen
causes marked contraction (Botkin). Cold, quinine, eucalyptus, ergot and
other agents also induce contraction. In the normal condition there is
an inverse ratio between the bulk of the spleen and the liver, the
enlargement of the one entailing a diminution of the other, but in
certain diseased states, such as anthrax, ague, etc., both are liable to
enlargement at the same time.
_Symptoms_ of splenic anæmia are wanting, through a lack of eosinophile
leucocytes, in the blood of a starved or otherwise debilitated animal,
may lead to suspicion of the condition.
The _treatment_ of such a case would be addressed rather to the general
debility which induced the splenic contraction than to the contraction
itself. Light, sunshine, pure air, exercise, grooming, nourishing food
and the avoidance of all debilitating morbid conditions would indicate
the principles of therapeutic management.