16 DECAY OF THE RED BLOOD-CORPUSCLES. 



(Hoyer, Kollmann), or exceedingly thin perforated walls. Similar conditions 

 obtain, in the spleen. 



Bizzozero and Torre found that after severe haemorrhage in birds, the marroio of 

 the bones contained globular, granular, nucleated cells, whose protoplasm was 

 coloured with haemoglobin, while between these and the oval biconvex nucleated 

 corpuscles of the bird, there were numerous transition stages. The spleen of the 

 bird seems to be of much less importance in the formation of blood-corpuscles 

 (Korn). All these observations prove that the red marrow of the bones is a great 

 manufactory for coloured blood-corpuscles. 



v. R-eckliughausen observed the direct transformation of these intermediate 

 forms into blood-corpuscles in frog's blood, which was kept for several days in a 

 moist chamber. A. Schmidt and Semmer found large lymph cells in the blood, 

 filled with granules of ha?mogoblin, and they regard these as intermediate forms 

 between colourless and coloured corpuscles. 



[Malassez, from an investigation of the red marrow of young kids, 

 finds that the cells of the red marrow and certain cells in the spleen 

 form rounded coloured projections or buds on their surface. These 

 get detached and form young blood-corpuscles, which soon become 

 disc-shaped; while the mother-cell itself continues to produce other 

 coloured corpuscles. Thus gemmation of the splenic and medullary cells 

 constitutes one great process in the manufacture of blood-corpuscles. 

 Hence it is apparent why diseases of bone in children lead to ansemia, 

 and soon bring about a cachectic condition.] 



8. Decay of the Red Blood-Corpuscles. 



The blood-corpuscles must positively undergo decay within a limited 

 time, and the liver is regarded as one of the chief places in which 

 their disintegration occurs, because bile-pigments are formed from 

 haemoglobin, and the blood of the hepatic vein contains fewer red 

 corpuscles than the blood of the portal vein. 



The splenic pulp contains cells which seem to indicate that coloured 

 corpuscles are broken up within it. These are the so-called "blood- 

 corpuscle-containing cells." Quincke's observations go to show that the 

 red corpuscles which may live from three to four weeks when about 

 to disintegrate, are taken up by white blood-corpuscles, and by the cells 

 of the spleen and the bone-marrow, and are stored up chiefly in the 

 spleen and marrow of bone. They are transformed, partly into 

 coloured, and partly into colourless proteids which contain iron, and 

 are either deposited in a granular form, or are dissolved. Part of the 

 products of decomposition is used for the formation of new blood- 

 corpuscles in the marrow and in the spleen, and also perhaps in the 

 liver, while a portion of the iron is excreted by the liver in the bile. 



That the normal red blood-corpuscles and other particles suspended in the blood- 

 stream are not taken up in this way, may be due to their being smooth and polished. 



