On the. Blood Corpuscles of the Mammifcrous Animals. 325 



tion is, I conceive, a merit which gives the British Associa- 

 tion a just claim to the gratitude of the scientific world. 

 Trin. Coll., Cambridge, Oct. 2, 1840. 



XL VII. Observations on certain Peculiarities of form in the 

 Blood Corpuscles of the Mammiferous Animals. By GEORGE 

 GULLIVER, F.R.S., F.Z.S., Assistant Surgeon to the Royal 

 Regiment of Horse Guards*. 



IN the course of an extensive series of observations f, I have 

 had occasion to remark, that the red particles of the mam- 

 miferous animals are singularly susceptible of change in size 

 and form, as if from the effect of organic contractility {. My 

 attention had long been directed to this subject, when it be- 

 came still more interesting to me from the results of the ex- 

 amination of the blood of certain deer. A notice of the sin- 

 gular appearances assumed by the blood corpuscles of these 

 animals was given in the Dublin Medical Press of December 

 18, 1839, and in the Philosophical Magazine for January, 

 1840; and more fully described, with an illustrative drawing, 

 in a paper read before the Royal Society in February, 1840, 

 and which forms part of the present communication. 



In that paper I expressed a doubt whether the remarkable 

 forms presented by the blood ^particles might not have re- 

 sulted from changes in the ordinary blood discs ; for it was 

 observed that the peculiar figures were more numerous after 

 the blood had been allowed to stand for a short time, while 

 they all disappeared and returned to the circular form when 

 treated with a small quantity of water. In continuing my 

 observations I soon had further reason to confirm this view, 

 as I mentioned in a note on the subject written in the be- 

 ginning of last March to Dr. Davy. In some specimens of 

 blood which I had recently obtained from the Mexican, 

 Porcine, and Persian Deer, the peculiar corpuscles were by 

 no means so numerous as on former occasions, and in some of 

 the trials were seen but very sparingly, while in other instances 

 the singular particles were present as abundantly as ever. 



Hence it became important to ascertain the conditions 



* Communicated by the Author. 



t Lond. and Edinb. Phil. Mag. for Dec. 1839, and in the Numbers for 

 January, February, March, and August, 1 840. 



I Mr. Ancell, in his excellent " Lectures on the Blood and other Animal 

 Fluids," mentions that Schultz describes the blood corpuscles as possessed 

 of very remarkable organic contractility. See Lancet, 1839, p. 147 and 386. 

 Eben and Mayer regarded the red particles as infusory animals. 



I take this opportunity of expressing a hope that we may soon have an 

 English version of the interesting papers entitled, " Untersuchungen ubcr 

 die Structur and Ver'dnderungen der L'hylus- Lymph- und BlutkorperchenJ* 

 by Dr. Herman Nasse, and published in the valuable " Untersuchungen 

 zur Physiologic und Pathologic ;" by Drs. Friedrich and Herman Nasse, 

 zweiter Band, Heft 1 and 2. 



