Dr. Griffith on the Blood and Fibre. 377 



LV. — On the Blood and Fibre. By John William Griffith, 

 M.D., F.L.S. 



To the Editors of the Annals of Natural History. 

 Gentlemen, 

 As Dr. Barry has noticed in the last Number of your valuable 

 Journal some observations I made in a former Number* on the 

 Blood and Fibre, I shall feel obliged by your inserting the fol- 

 lowing remarks, extracted from my paper in the Medical Gazette 

 in reply to Dr. Barry : — 



u I leave the reader to judge whether the description of the fibre 

 in the blood-corpuscles, given by me, is sufficient to authorize any 

 one to give an opinion as to whether I have seen it or not. I be- 

 lieve that the consideration of the abstract appearances presented 

 by objects under the microscope, serves very often rather to call 

 forth the powers of the imagination as to what might cause such 

 appearances, than as the means of making out the real structure 

 of bodies; and, in examining different structures, we ought to 

 avail ourselves of the assistance of all the means of investigation 

 in our power — as dissection, chemical agents, heat, maceration, 

 &c. Were these made use of in all cases, I feel convinced we 

 should arrive at more satisfactory and less discrepant results. 

 Now the effect of maceration in the case of muscular fibre con- 

 vinces me that no such arrangement as that of a double spiral can 

 exist ; otherwise why do we have the separation into discs ? This 

 has been accurately figured and described by Mr. Bowman, and 

 every microscopist must have seen it. As regards the formation 

 of the tissues of the body from the blood- corpuscles, there seem 

 to me insuperable difficulties in these views. In addition to the 

 majority of the appearances which have been observed in the 

 blood having occurred after the blood has left its vessels, in many 

 cases they have been seen taking place, under the microscope, in 

 the blood removed from the body. Can these appearances be 

 called vital ? Have we any right to believe that they take place 

 in the living body ? Moreover, where do these forming or per- 

 fected fibres, &c. pass through the capillaries ? And how is it we 

 do not find in certain cases fibres, epithelium-cells, &c. existing 

 in the arteries, veins, or capillaries ? 



" I must say, however, that no views have been yet advanced 

 which will explain some of the appearances presented by muscular 

 fibre. Some of those which have been figured by Dr. Barry cer- 

 tainly cannot be explained on the views advanced by Mr. Bow- 

 man ; although I believe the appearance figured by him in the 

 ' New Cyclopaedia of Physiology ' to be the real structure of the 

 muscle in its ordinary form. 



* Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist. No. 68. Feb. 1843. 

 Ann. $ Mag. N. Hist. Vol. xi. 2 C 



