On the corpuscles of the blood / by Martin Barry. Pts. [I]-III.

  • Martin Barry
Date:
1840-1841
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the corpuscles of the blood / by Martin Barry. Pts. [I]-III. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    but that, in all instances, and whatever the minuteness of the object, the division in question takes place by a similar process,—a process which we found to be elaborate in the extreme. 93. The expression, having the same appearance as the corpuscles of the blood, is constantly made use of in the following pages ; though most of the corpuscles to which it is applied would have been at once denominated corpuscles of the blood, but for a reason given in the concluding portion of the memoir (par. 196.). 94. Besides the substances above mentioned, I have examined the pus and mucus globules, which I shall first describe. The Globules of Pus derived from Corpuscles of the Blood:—Mucus-globules compared with them. 95. “The nucleus of the mucus-corpuscle,” says Schwann, “has the peculiarity, discovered by Guterbock, of becoming separated into two or three corpuscles of minuter size by acetic acid; while the surrounding part is gradually dissolved by this reagent. Vogel supposes this property to belong only to pus-corpuscles, and to the corpuscles of unhealthy mucus. Henle, however, informs me,” continues Schwann, “that the same peculiarity *** is found in the true mucus-corpuscles, present in healthy mucus-f-.” Respecting pus-corpuscles, Schwann remarks, “They share with them [corpuscles of mucus] the peculiar relation towards acetic acid^;.” 96. My own observations on this subject are the following. In Plate XX. fig. 64 (3. are pus-globules, to which no addition whatever had been made ; and fig. 63 £ presents one of these globules, as viewed after the addition of dilute spirit. Now as the objects in both figures exhibit the division of the “nucleus,” just spoken of, without the addition of acetic acid, I am compelled to form an opinion opposed to that of the authors just referred to, and to maintain that in the pus-globule acetic acid is not required to produce such division. 97- But facts recorded in several of my former memoirs appear to have been suffi- cient for showing that neither acetic acid nor any other foreign substance is required to produce division of what has been called the nucleus of the pus-globule; such division being part of the process by which cells are reproduced, and apparently universal in its operation. The present memoir, also, will be found full of facts, showing that this really is the case. 98. As to the mode of origin of the objects in question, Schwann remarks, “The pus-corpuscles are thus probably peculiar cells, forming in the pus-serum, that is in the cytoblastema, which in inflammation exudes in greater quantity and unusual mixture, in the same manner as the mucus-corpuscles form in mucus, and as all cells f Mikroskopische Untersuchungen iiber die Uebereinstimmung in der Struktur und dem Wachsthum der Thiere und Pflanzen, 1839, pp. 77, 78. t L. c., pp. 78, 79. 2 G MDCCCXLI.