4s SPECIFICITY OF THE BLOOD OF VERTEBRATES 



f. Physiologie, 1892, vi, 394) states that the leucocytes of the dog contain 

 a much larger amount of glycogen than the corpuscles of herbivora. The 

 studies of the leucocytes of the horse by Hayem (Compt. rend. soc. biolog., 

 1899, LI, 623) have" brought to light peculiarities which indicate generic 

 distinctions. In vertebrates the leucocytes of any given variety do not 

 appear to vary as much in size in different genera as do the erythrocytes, 

 but in cold-blooded animals these cells are on the whole larger than in 

 warm-blooded animals. The polynuclears in man and the guinea-pig are 

 somewhat smaller than the large mononuclears, while in the rat and rabbit 

 they are considerably smaller. The granules of leucocytes exhibit peculiar- 

 ities in their behavior towards dyes, some staining with acid stains (eosino- 

 philes or oxyphiles), some with acid and basic stains (amphophiles) , and 

 some with basic dyes (basophiles) . Kanthack and Hardy (Journal of 

 Physiology, 1894-95, xvn, 22) have found that the granules of the poly- 

 nuclears of man, rabbit, rat, mouse, and guinea-pig show marked differences 

 in their affinities for acid dyes, and also in their degrees of refractivity 

 the higher the staining reaction the higher the refractivity. Sherrington 

 (Proc. Roy. Soc., 1894, LV, 161) states that the granules are more refrac- 

 tive in the cat than in the horse, and that the shape of the granules is usu- 

 ally spherical in the rabbit and dog, cylindroid in the cat, roughly cuboid 

 in the horse, and that in the cat and horse many spheroid granules are often 

 present. He also noted that the cylindroid granule of the cat is larger than 

 the spheroid of the dog, and that the cuboid granule of the horse is much 

 larger than the cylindroid of the cat. The ratio of leucocytes to the erythro- 

 cytes he found was distinctly lower in the cat than in the dog. 



The percentages of the several varieties of leucocytes in the bloods 

 of different species vary sufficiently to indicate positive generic differences. 

 Eosinophiles are few in mammalian blood, but abundant in the lower verte- 

 brates; and they are more abundant in the horse than in human blood, 

 and the granular matter is different. Sherrington found the coarsely gran- 

 ular cells to be more numerous in the cat than in the dog. The researches 

 of Carstanjen (Jahr. f. klin. u. phys. Erziehung., 1900, LII, 237, 346) and 

 others on man and of Kanthack and Hardy (loc. cit.) , Silverman (University 

 of Pennsylvania Medical Bulletin, 1904-05, xvn, 22), and Lisin (Arch. int. 

 de pharm. et de therap., 1908, xvin, 237) on the lower animals show cer- 

 tain marked differences. The eosinophiles represent a low percentage of 

 the total leucocytes, and the differences in the proportions in different 

 species are probably too small to be of any significance. The large mono- 

 nuclears and transitional cells are in man, the guinea-pig, and the dog 

 distinctly more numerous than the eosinophiles; while in the rat and rabbit 

 they are of about the same proportions as the eosinophiles. 



The polynuclears and the lymphocytes represent the great bulk of the 

 leucocytes 88.27 per cent in man, 95 per cent in the rat, 86 per cent in the 

 guinea-pig, over 90 per cent in the rabbit, and 92 per cent in the dog. 

 In man, the guinea-pig, and the dog the polynuclears are decidedly more 

 numerous than the lymphocytes, while in the rat and rabbit they are less 

 numerous. The ratios differ widely: in man 2.64:1, in the rat 0.9:1, 



