424 SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



ripe cell, it is not improbable that the oxyphil granule may 

 be derived more or less directly from worn-out nuclear 

 substance. In the testis the cells undergoing degeneration 

 and karyolysis in the course of spermatogenesis come to 

 contain within the shrunken cell-substance a material highly 

 refracting and oxyphil ; this substance collects in proportion 

 as the chromatin disappears (46). Now we know that 

 nuclei are rich in phosphorus, and that chromatin contains 

 iron (15); and that the oxyphil granule of the leucocyte 

 also contains both phosphorus and iron ; a chemical con- 

 nection between the degeneration of nuclei and the origin 

 of oxyphil granules is, therefore, perfectly possible. It is 

 further worth remembering that in the red marrow, with its 

 wealth of haemoglobin and of oxyphil granulation, there is 

 normally a remarkable frequency of degenerate cell-forms, 

 and the correlation of the three occurrences is well exem- 

 plified in certain pathological conditions. 



In that type of leukcemia in which the spleen and bone 

 marrow are predominantly affected and enlarged, a great 

 number of cells which resemble the coarsely granular 

 oxyphil cell appear in the blood. These cells are not how- 

 ever exactly like the normal coarsely granular leucocyte, 

 for they are not amoeboid (20), and present other minor 

 points of difference ; they resemble more closely a free cell 

 common in marrow, which contains oxyphil substance 

 and is not amoeboid. They certainly appear to be marrow 

 cells which have entered the blood, but it is not proven 

 that they are identical with the coarsely granular leucocyte 

 ot blood, or that the latter is derived from the red marrow. 



V. The Finely Granular Basophil Cell. 



This is a small cell, spherical in shape, often possessing 

 an irregularly lobed nucleus. The cell-body contains a 

 number of minute granules which take on an intense purple 

 tint under the action of methylene blue. The cell is a 

 sparse but probably a normal denizen of the blood ; in man 

 it is said to be least rare in the blood in about the third hour 

 of digestion (2), but even then it requires long searching to 

 discover. It has not been met with in the lymph or serous 



