ANÆMIA OF THE SPLEEN.
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.