ITS PHYSICAL, CHEMICAL, AND STRUCTURAL CHARACTERS. 243 



FIG. 110. 



come into view aud coalesce to form a vesicular body which begins to ro- 

 tate, whilst the granules around it exhibit Browniau movements, and ulti- 

 mately the whole corpuscle disintegrates. When acted on by carbonic acid, 

 the colorless corpuscles show their nuclei, but are otherwise unaltered. After 

 the action of acetic acid they present the 

 appearance of globular bodies in which 

 two, three, or more small shrunken nuclei 

 are visible. In alkalies the colorless 

 corpuscles swell and rapidly disappear, 

 yet they exhibit remarkable resistance 

 to the action of bile. 1 When excited 

 electrically during their amoeboid move- 

 ments, they assume the spheroidal form, 

 but resume their activity on the cessa- 

 tion of the stimulus ; after repeated ex- 

 citation they expand and flatten, but 

 still exhibit changes of form. Under 

 the influence of successive shocks of 

 greater intensity they swell, the granules 

 exhibit molecular movements, and they 

 finally disappear. 2 Biuz 3 and Geltowsky 

 have shown that quinine has a remark- 

 able power of arresting the movements 

 of the white corpuscles. The stroma of 

 the white corpuscles contains a substance 

 analogous to Myosin, with Lecithin, 

 Cholesterin, Glycogen, and Fat. In ad- 

 dition to the alkaline albumiuates and 

 serum-albumen, the nucleus contains an 



which closely resembles mucin (Kiihue, Bruuton), and is perhaps intermedi- 

 ate to albumen and lecithin. 4 Hoppe-Seyler finds that the white corpuscles 

 only contain glycogen as long as they exhibit movements, aud that when 

 they become rigid they lose their glycogen and contain sugar. The iuclo- 

 sure of particles of coloring matter of carbon, or even of red corpuscles by 

 the white corpuscles, has been frequently witnessed. 5 The white corpuscles 

 of the blood, both of the frog and tritou, and of man, have been observed 

 by Klein to multiply by fission. 6 



" 177. The proportion which the white or colorless corpuscles bear to the red, 

 is very small in the blood of man and the higher Vertebrata ; being, in the 

 state of health, according to the estimate of Moleschott (which is confirmed 

 by Kolliker), 7 not more than 2.55 to 1000. It varies, however, to a very re- 



A small Venous trunk, a, from the Web of 

 the Frog's foot; 6,6, cells of pavement-epithe- 

 lium, containing nuclei. In the space between 

 the current of oval Blood-corpuscles and the 

 walls of the vessel, the round transparent 

 colorless corpuscles are seen. 



albuminoid substance (Nuclein) 



1 Jurasz, Inaug. Dies. Greifswalde, 1871. 



2 Klein, op. cit., p. 18. See also Golubew, Wien. Akad. Sitz., Ivii, p. 555, Math. 

 Nat. Classe. 



3 Practitioner, No. 51, 1872. 



4 See Hoppe-Seyler and Miescher in Hoppe-Seyler's Med.-Chem. Untersuch., iv, 

 1871, p. 486, quoted in Brunton and Ferrier's Report on Physiology in Journ. of 

 Anat. and Phys , vol. vi, p. 45. Also Brunton's Paper on the Chemical Comp. of 

 the Nuclei of 'Blood-Corpuscles in Journ. of Anat. and Phys., vol. iv, 1870, p. 91. 

 The distinctive chemical characters of " nuclein " appear to constitute an answer to 

 Mr. Savory's view that " the existence of a nucleus in the red corpuscles of Ovipara 

 is due to changes after death or removal from the vessels." See his paper in Month. 

 Microsp. Journ., 1869, vol. i, p. 235. 



5 See Preyer, Virchow's Archiv, 1864, p. 417. 



6 Centralblatt, 1870, p. 17. 



7 Manual of Human Histology (Sydcnham Society's edition), vol. ii, p. 330. 



