In his experiments on rabbits it was proved by Tizzoni, and in his experiments on dogs, by Crede, that an individual could live without a spleen; but these observations were only confirmatory of what had long been known, for, in 1867, Pean successfully removed a spleen from a woman of twenty.

Tricomi reports eight cases in which he had extirpated the spleen for various morbid conditions, with a fortunate issue in all but one.

In one case he ligated the splenic artery.

In The Lancet there is an account of three recent excisions of the spleen for injury at St.Thomas Hospital in London, and it is added that they are among the first of this kind in Great Britain.
Abnormalities of Size of the Spleen .-- The spleen may be extremely small.

Storck mentions a spleen that barely weighed an ounce; Schenck speaks of one in the last century that weighed as much as 20 pounds.
Frank describes a spleen that weighed 16 pounds; there is another record of one weighing 15 pounds.