falla(jip:s and puzzles in blood examination 123 



I do not think they had anything to do with the trypanosomiasis from whicli the 



animal was suffering. 



If " ruby" granules are found lying free in a blood film stained by Leishinan's method 



one niay be pretty certain they are derived from a lymphocyte, at least if the blood bo 



human, but I do not think anyone would make a mistake about them, and they are 



not common, for the lymphocyte is not a very friable cell. They stain quite differently 



from free eosinophile granules which only a tyro would fail to recognise at a glance. It 



must not be forgotten that recent blood investigations have shown the frequent presence 



of special granules or bodies in the extra-nuclear cytoplasm of certain of the mononuclear Bodies in 



elements. The most important of these are those known as Ferrata's plasmosomes, ''"^ extra- 

 nuclear proto- 

 Plate VI., fig. 3, and Kurloff's bodies, Plate VI., fig. 15. The former are small, are found piasmofcertain 



in all types of lymphoid mononuclears, possess what is called a metachromatic staining mononuclears 



reaction, and by Ferrata are thought to be evidence of a regressive metamorphosis. The 



latter, which are larger, and which have been the subject of a special paper by Schilling, 



have been supposed to be secretion vacuoles or — and from the point of view of the 



present paper this is important — parasites. Indeed, I have seen it suggested that the 



intra-corpuscular stage of fowl spirochietes, which I described in red cells, was in reality 



of the nature of plasmosomes or Kurloff's bodies, hence the importance of bearing them 



in mind. 



Schilling's work goes to show that they are merely phagocyted structures (the action 

 having taken place during blood formation), which undergo only regressive change after 

 absorption by the mononuclear cell. His observations were made on the blood-forming 

 organs and tissues of the guinea-pig. An illustration of these bodies is shown, Plate VI., 

 fig. 15, which I trust may be helpful. I have encountered them in the mononuclears 

 of fowls and rats, and for a long time did not know what they were. 



One has mentioned fowls' blood, and some reference is necessary to the interesting 

 work of Kasarinoff on the blood of pigeons. (Folia lliem.atoloyica, Bd. X. H. 2. Part 1. 

 Archiv. November, 1910). His tine plates of normal and abnormal cells, and curious 

 blood findings are well worthy of close attention. Of special interest are the polar bodies 

 he describes in thrombocytes after treatment of the blood with saponin. They appear as 

 small, single dots, or as spherical solid bodies, or as rings with solid inclusions, or 

 as signet shapes, or as little spore-like clumps. Indeed, save for their colour reaction 

 (" azurephil ") and the fact tliat they occur in thrombocytes they closely resemble some 

 of the bodies in fowl's red cells which I believe to be spirochsetal inclusions. As 

 I state elsewhere {page 85) it may be that one has confused two conditions, and that 

 some of the red cell forms are of the nature of these peculiar polar bodies. So far as 

 I know the nature of these has not been settled. 



Kasarinoff also draws attention to the spherical plasmocytes of birds' blood which Spherical 

 are like human blood plates and are portions torn off the plasma of thrombocytes plasmocytes in 

 (plasmorrhexis). Their likeness to blood plates is intensified by the fact that they may 

 contaiir remnants of the polar bodies at their centres. I have seen these in films 

 showing fowl spirochsetosis and they are shown in Plate VI., fig. 14. 



A paper in English which gives some account of the red and white blood cells of 

 certain animals is that by Goodall {Journal of Pathology and Bacteriology, Vol. XIY., 

 p. 195, 1910) which may be found useful by laboratory workers in the Tropics, though it 

 must be remembered that the state of the blood in hot countries may differ very 

 considerably from that in temperate climates. Unfortunately, we have no tropical 

 standards to guide us, at least as regards the lower animals. 



