A text book of physiology / by William Rutherford.

Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A text book of physiology / by William Rutherford. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    67/180 (page 55)
    Sometimes one may find in a drop of human blood a coarsely-granular corpuscle resembling that of the newt's blood (Fig. 13, b), and in every Fig 15. Human blood, c, Coloured Fig. IG. Human blood coi-puscles. corpuscles in rouleaux; w, w', white Coloured corpuscle lying (a) on Its corpuscles, x 300. broad surface (/)) on edge : c, rouleaux of coloured coriiuscles ; white cor- puscles iiucleated (d, e) ; without nuclei (/). X 1000. drop of blood one may with a very high power (1000 diam.) see here and there, as Beale was the first to show, extremely minute non-nucleated particles of protoplasm, some of which are probably detached from the pseudopodia of the larger corpuscles. As regards amoeboid movements and the effects of re-agents, the state- ments already made regarding the newt's corpuscles are applicable here, with this difference, however, that as the human corpuscles are normally at a temperature of 38° C. (100° F.), they require to be kept at that tem- perature to show their amoeljoid movements perfectly. The term leucocyte is applied by some to lymph-cells and white blood- cells, the wandering cells of connective tissue, and pus-cells. All these corpuscles have a similar structure, and most of them a similar origin. Chemical Composition.—Owing to the impossibility of isolating the white corpuscles in numbers suflBcient for analysis, their chemical compo- sition cannot be directly ascertained. Doubtless they have a composition similar to that of undifferentiated protoplasm generally. As pus-corpuscles, however, are optically identical Avith, and in many cases are emigrated white blood-corpuscles (p. 54), their composition is probably similar to that of the blood-corpuscles. Pus-coqiiLscles contain several proteids—one closely allied to myosin, and anotlier to alkali-albumin. There is also a relatively large proportion of a carbohydrate—glycogen, and an azotised fat—lecithin. The chief salt is potassium-phosphate. The nuclei con- tain nuclein (p. 37).—Micscher, 0]}. 21, Heft 4, p. 441. COLOURED BLOOD-CORPUSCLES. Colour and Shape.—In all animals the coloured corpuscles are red when seen in mass, but ^xJe yellow when viewed singly. Their pigment is haemoglobin (p. 37). They have no amoeboid or other contractile motion, and although very extensible they are perfectly elastic, and there- fore have shapes that are definite, unless Avheii distorted by pressure. Possessing a smooth and non-viscous surface, they readily glide past each other within the blood-vessels. They present two types as regards sJiape,