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

Martin Barry

Date:: 1840-1841

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

6/112 page 598

$10. The objects g in Plate XXIX. fig. 2. were of a reddish colour, but larger than blood-corpuscles. They also presented distinctly a membrane at the surface, and contained globules or discs (each of which had its pellucid centre) surrounding a common pellucid space. One of the objects g was elliptical, the others appeared more or less globular in form. 11. It is still a question with some, whether the blood-corpuscles in the embryo are formed out of granules of the yelk. My Second Series on Embryology'!' will I think have served to decide this question ; for it was there shown that in the mam- miferous ovum there exist no yelk-granules which can be so transformed; the ovum being filled with colourless transparent fluid. Rapid and incessant Changes in the Form of altered Blood-corpuscles. 12. In Plate XXIX. figs. 3, 4, 5, are seen the momentary forms of objects which I observed in fluid collected on the fimbriated portion of the Fallopian tube, at the pe- riods respectively of 5, 13, and 5^ hours post coitum. These objects were altered cor- puscles of the blood. Fig. 3. presents a gradual transition from the blood-cor- puscles in fig. 1, to objects which in the absence of such connecting links would scarcely have been recognized as such. 13. These altered blood-corpuscles (figs. 3, 4, 5.) were in motion; rarely exhibiting a change of place, but presenting a rapid and incessant change of form. I have had many opportunities for observing these motions, which are often such as to be com- parable to the writhings of an animal in pain. Sometimes one of the objects in ques- tion assumes in a twinkling an hour-glass shape, as if about to separate into two por- tions ; but as quickly regains its previous form, or assumes a new figure. The con- dition, however, is by no means one of alternate rest and motion. The motion, as already said, is incessant, and so rapid that it is extremely difficult to catch and deli- young man of nineteen years, from whom blood was taken in Bronchitis, I found, besides the regular concave blood-corpuscles (averaging in diameter distinctly spherical finely granulated globules of wuo'’ in appearance entirely corresponding to the second form of corpuscles, which are so easily demonstrable for instance in the blood of Frogs. Quite similar globules, though in more sparing quantity, I found in my own blood after venesection in consequence of inflammation.***I have since always found these corpuscles in drawn blood. ***They appear to stand in exact relation to the size of the blood-corpuscles of the animal.***They, however, vary much more in size than the [true] blood-corpuscles.***With respect to the form,***I hold them indeed to be globular, but perhaps globules pressed somewhat flat.*‘i:*They are distinguishable from the other blood-cor- puscles, also : 1. by being colourless ; 2. by a certain lustre, and the property of strongly refracting light; 3. by their peculiarly granular appearance, so that they might be taken for aggregates of globules (nevertheless it appears to me that they are granular only at the surface).” R. Wagner then shows that the number of these corpuscles of the “ second form” is greater in animals well-fed, and he mentions an instance in which they greatly increased after the blood had stood for two hours. It. Wagner, Beitriige zur vergl. Phys. II. pp. 19—48. t Philosophical Transactions, 1839, Part II. p. 307.$

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

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