BLOOD AND LYMPH. 



195 



and the employment of special methods on the part of a number 

 of recent observers (Detjen, Deckhuysen, Kopsch and Argutinsky), 

 they have been able to show that these structures present a more 

 complicated structure than was formerly thought. When exam- 

 ined in an isotonic salt solution (for mammals 0.9 to 0.95 sodium 

 chlorid solution), they present an oval or short spindle-shaped form, 

 and in them there can be made out a relatively large structure, which 

 stains in certain basic aniline stains and is interpreted as a nucleus 

 (Deckhuysen). When examined after 

 a method suggested by Detjen (with a 

 i per cent, agar solution there is 

 mixed O.6 per cent, sodium chlorid, 

 0.3 per cent, of sodium metaphos- 

 phate and dipotassiuin phosphate; a 

 thin layer of this agar mixture is 

 spread on the slide and a drop of 

 blood mounted between it and the 

 cover), the blood platelets or throm- 

 bocytes may be observed on the warm 

 stage for several hours, and it may be 

 seen that they present ameboid move- 

 ment, in that short, thread-like pro- 

 cesses pass out from the cell, which 

 may alter their shape and position 

 and which may be again withdrawn. 



When the blood leaves the blood- 

 vessels, the blood platelets or throm- 

 bocytes break down very quickly, 

 unless the above-mentioned methods 

 are made use of, so that in ordinary 



fresh preparations or generally in dried films they are not to be 

 observed in an unaltered state. The nuclei disappear and the pro- 

 toplasm becomes granular or vacuolated. The breaking down of 

 the blood platelets or thrombocytes is accompanied by the forma- 

 tion of fibrin (coagulation of the blood), the fibrin threads beginning 

 at the borders or processes of the platelets, and radiating in all 

 directions (Kopsch). 



Hemokonia. H. F. Muller (96) found in the blood of healthy and 

 diseased individuals highly refractive, colorless, and round (seldom rod- 

 like) bodies, which he terms " hemokonia. " Their numbers vary, 

 although they are normal constituents of the blood. Their nature and 

 origin are obscure. They do not dissolve in acetic acid, nor are they 

 blackened by osmic acid. The latter would seem to indicate that they 

 do not consist of ordinary fat substance, although they are probably com- 

 posed of a substance closely allied to fat. They are usually i p. in diam- 

 eter. 



Fig. 159- Fibrin from laryngeal 

 vessel of child ; X about 30x3. 



