Although it has long been known that the removal of the spleen can be effected with impunity, comparatively little data is available regarding the relation of this organ to metabolism. A few experiments made on dogs1 have led essentially to negative results, while in the four cases2 in which metabolism studies have been conducted on human subjects, both before and after splenectomy, it was found that more or less definite metabolic changes could be detected after operation.
In the cases studied by Umber, in which splenectomy had been performed on two persons suffering from Banti's disease, this investigator found that after splenectomy it was easier to bring the subjects into nitrogenous equilibrium, a fact which he attributes to the "toxic" action of the spleen in this disease. It was also noted that the output of purins was slightly increased. In one case studied by Minot, a woman suffering from pernicious