2716 Journal of Applied Microscopy 



leukaemia is generally more rapid. Leucocytosis or lymphocytosis is simply the 

 expression of a tissue reaction while leukaemia always arises from the emigration 

 of tumor cells from a hyperplastic neoplasm in the leucocyte tissues. If the 

 organism attempts the rapid formation of myelocytes there may not be sufificient 

 time for the development of granules in the cell protoplasm, and as a result 

 unripe cells are thrown into the circulation which resemble the large and small 

 lymphocytes and not the typical myelocytes. The writer holds that cells of the 

 myelocytic type found in the spleen and lymph nodes in cases of myelogenous 

 leukaemia may be formed in situ out of the undifferentiated large lymphocyte. 



Weber reports a case of acute leukaemia of two months duration in which 

 the blood picture was that of a mixed cell leukaemia (Reed's terminology). In 

 a spread of the heart's blood 93 per cent, of the white cells were lymphocytes 

 and i) per cent, myelocytes. The liver, spleen, and lymph nodes were enlarged. 

 Great numbers, both of lymphoid cells and eosinophilic myelocytes were found 

 in the internal organs. Professor Muir of Glasgow, who examined the sections, 

 regarded the case as one of lymphatic leukaemia, although he had never seen 

 such numbers of eosinophiles in that disease. j. h. p. 



Meyer. BeitragezurLeukocytenfrage. Munch. Brandenburg in 1900 called attention 

 Med. Woch. 50: 1489, 1903. ^ 



to the fact that the blood in myeloge- 

 nous leukaemia without the addition of H.^Oj or turpentine oil would color 

 guaiac tincture blue. This held true even when very small amounts of blood 

 were used. Bone marrow from a case of myelogenous leukaemia gave the reac- 

 tion, but the structures rich in lymphocytes as the spleen, thymus, and lymph 

 nodes as well as the other organs of the same individual yielded negative 

 results. 



Meyer found the reaction did not occur when the blood and bone marrow 

 from a case of lymphatic leukaemia were tested. He confirmed Brandenburg's 

 results in two cases of myelogenous leukaemia and modified the technique. The 

 following simple method of applying the test is recommended : Two or three 

 drops of leukaemic blood are collected in a test-tube and mixed with a large 

 amount of water, so much in fact that no color of blood remains. The fluid 

 becomes a deep blood on the addition of guaiac tincture. 



Under Professor Friedrich Miiller's direction a study of this property of 

 myelocytic blood was made. The reaction was found to depend upon an oxidiz- 

 ing ferment present in the myelocytes. The same ferment was demonstrable in 

 pus cells and in the completely normal neutrophilic leucocytes, but not in the 

 lymphocytes. 



The author believes that the conception of an acute lymphatic leukaemia as a 

 distinct variety of the disease is correct, and that it should be sharply differenti- 

 ated from the myelogenous form. 



Rosin and Bibergeil have shown that the nucleus of dead leucocytes is 

 colored by neutral red while the nucleus of living leucocytes is not. The cyto- 

 plasm takes the vital stain. 



Meyer found in a case of leukaemia that a relatively large number of nuclei 

 were stained at the time when the excretion of uric acid was greatest. Hence 



