Observations of the growth and reproduction of the red corpuscles of the blood.

  • Bakewell, Robert Hall.
Date:
[1874]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations of the growth and reproduction of the red corpuscles of the blood. 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.

    7/14 (page 9)
    will Lc found similar collections of niiich smaller bodies, evi- dently occupying the place of the red corpuscles, wliich liave disappeared. This experiment must be very carefully per- formed, as sputum detached from the bodj'', but kept at a temperature of 98.6, will puti'ify in about 6 hours, and gi^^es off a most horrible smell. Apparently this is from the mix- ture of saliva, as mucus hawked up from the throat direct, without touching the mouth, keeps for a much longer time— twenty hours in fact. Possibly the presence of the sulpho- cyanides in the saliva may favour rapid decomposition. These experiments, of which the details would be tedious, taken together with the fact that the red colouring matter of the blood is diffused through pneumonia (and some other spu- tum) in a way which never could take place mechanically, convinced the writer that some vital change^ would occur in blood removed from the blood-vessehs, but supplied with jmbulum, and kept at a temperature of 98.6. On thinking the matter over it occurred to the writer that the nucleated oval corpuscles of birds would be not only much larger, but would show much more clearly the nature of the changes that took place. By this means several incon- veniences attending the use of mammalian blood—such as the extreme smallness of the corpuscles^—were avoided, but as it was difficult to procure enough serum from the blood itself, in many of the experiments the albumen of the hen's egg was employed, which answers just as well as serum. The first thing to be noted is that however soon the blood may be examined after being taken from the bird, it will be found to contaij] not only oval nucleated red corpuscles and circular white ones, but also non-nucleated circular red corpuscles exactly like those of the mammalia, except that they appeared to be biconvex. These have been seen within fifteen minutes of the blood being taken from tlie body. It is important to note