Dissertations by eminent members of the Royal Medical Society.
- Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh
- Date:
- 1892
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Dissertations by eminent members of the Royal Medical Society. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.
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![murchison] changes whereby it is again fitted for nourisHng the tissues. These various processes would seem to be all affected by the agency of cell growth, and hence we naturally conclude that the red corpuscles (as well as the white) which are suspended in the liquor sanguinis constitute a very important, if not the most important, portion of the blood. What their more pecuhar functions probably are we shall after- wards consider, but in the first place, as in every other physiological investigation, before consider- ing function itself, we must have a correct know- ledge of structure, of structure not only in a state of health, but also of structure as modified by disease. For this reason I think I may with pro- priety divide the present subject into the three following heads, viz.:—The histology, pathology, and physiology of the red corpuscles of the blood. And first their— I.—HISTOLOGY. Here we shall consider:— 1. The general appearance, etc., of the red cor- puscles as seen in man. I need hardly mention that the red corpuscles of the human blood are invisible to the naked eye, and require the assistance of a powerful microscope to determine their structure in a satisfactory manner. When examined under the microscope the human blood corpuscle is found to be a circular disc, the diameter of which varies from ~ to of an Enghsh inch. Their thickness is about ^ov ^ oi their trans- verse diameter. The corpuscles have not always the same size even in the same individual. This has been observed to be the case even in man, and](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21462252_0297.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
