Dr Barry's OOaet'vations on Fibre. 193 



mercury and of silver. After the appearance of the filament, 

 thus brought to light, has become familiar to the eye, it may 

 be discerned in the blood-discs, when coagulation has com- 

 menced, without any addition whatever. Those blood-discs 

 of the newt, which contain filaments, often assume the form 

 of flask-like vesicles, the membranes of which exhibit folds, 

 converging towards the neck, where, on careful examination, 

 a minute body may be seen protruding. This body is the ex- 

 tremity of the filament in question^ its protrusion being oc- 

 casionally such as to admit of its remarkable structure being re- 

 cognised. 



The author proceeds to describe various appearances which 

 he has observed in the coagulum of the blood, and which 

 strongly resemble those met with in the tissues of the body, 

 and are obviously referable to a similar process of formation. 

 He bears testimony to the accuracy of the delineations of coa- 

 gulated blood given by Mr Gulliver. One of the most re- 

 markable phenomena discovered by the author in the coagu- 

 lation of the blood is the evolution of red colouring matter ; 

 a change corresponding to that which he had previously ob- 

 served to take place in the formation of the various structm'es 

 of the body out of the corpuscles of the blood. He considers 

 the production of filaments as constituting the essential cir- 

 cumstance in coagulation. 



He conjectures that the notched or granulated fibres noticed 

 in the blood by Professor Mayer, may have been of the same 

 kind as the flat, grooved, and compound filaments described by 

 himself; but he thinks that, in that case, Mayer^s explanation 

 of their mode of origin must be en'oneous ; for they may be 

 seen to be produced by a portion of the blood not mentioned 

 by him, namely, the corpuscles. 



Mr Addison''s discovery of globules in the uppermost stra- 

 tum of inflammatory blood, and of their influence in the forma- 

 tion of the buffy coat, is confirmed by Dr Barry, who remarks 

 that these globules are altered red blood-discs. That the 

 blood corpuscles are reproduced by means of parent cells, as 

 suggested by Mr Owen and by the author, is confirmed by 

 the observations of Dr Remak ; but the author had long ago 



VOL. XXXIII. NO. LXV. JULY 1842, N 



