BY T. HARVEY JOHNSTON AND J. BUR'iON CLELAND. 509 



pale pink with a less stained centre. Many of the cells contained 

 these bodies; perhaps 1 in 10 did so. In no instance were two 

 found in one red cell. 



The corpuscles of this fish (which varied slightly^in shape from 

 oval to almost spherical, according, presumably, to the position 

 in which they were fixed) were 8 to 9/Lt long by 5*5 to 7'5/x broad. 

 In another similar fish caught three days before, and in which 

 the blood-slides were apparently tinted exactly in a similar way, 

 these bodies do not appear. 



The nature of these bodies seems uncertain. The fact that, 

 though a considerable percentage of the red cells contained then), 

 in no instance were two found in one cell is rather against their 

 being protozoa. This is important when we consider the com- 

 parative frequency of double infections of cells in the Halteridia 

 of birds, and the Plasmodia of birds and man. On the other 

 hand, as these bodies in no way suggest the product of degener- 

 ative processes, we are forced to consider them, if not protozoal, 

 as more or less normal products of the cell either when in its 

 younger condition or adult form. This at once suggests that 

 they may represent the centrosomes of the corpuscles which have 

 been recently described by Ronald Ross, Moore, and Walker, (6) 

 in the red corpuscles of the axolotl, the crocodile, man, etc.(Trans. 

 Path. Soc. Lond. Vol.lviii. 1907, p. 107). These were described 

 by them as follows in the case of the axolotl : — 



"Outside the nuclei, however, one or more small bodies appeared. 

 These were very sharply defined and stained bright red. Very 

 often there were but two, one larger than the other, and frequently 

 they were kidney- or bean-shaped; often, however, there were 

 more than two, sometimes as many as seven or eight, or even 

 more. They were almost invariably close together in one group, 

 frequently connected by filaments, and generally near the 

 nucleus." These bodies, however, are quite unlike the undoubted 

 centrosomes, to be presently described, that we have met with in 

 the red cells of two specimens of Australian tortoises, being 

 larger, more spherical, and less deeply stained. 



