100 HOWELL. [Vol. IV. 



by appropriate treatment with methyl blue and chromic acid, 

 I have met with corpuscles containing granulations very fre- 

 quently, particularly in the blood-forming organs. In sections 

 or teased specimens of the blood-forming organs, the newly 

 formed red corpuscles are often characterized by the ease with 

 which they lose their haemoglobin. Under such conditions 

 the granulations come out very distinctly. Sometimes the 

 granules — which stain, by the way, like nuclear chromatin — 

 are so arranged as to represent the outline of the nucleus, and 

 I have obtained such cells in which the nucleus at the same 

 time was fixed in the act of extrusion (see Fig. 7). It is an 

 interesting fact with reference to the corpuscles containing 

 granules that they are usually newly formed corpuscles, and on 

 that account occur most abundantly in the foetal blood or in 

 the blood-forming organ (marrow) of the adult. There is no 

 evidence to show that the granules are the last remaining frag- 

 ments of an absorbed nucleus. On the contrary, all that we 

 know about them is opposed to such a view. They must be 

 looked upon, it seems to me, as bits of the nuclear chromatin 

 (membrane) left behind when the nucleus leaves the cell. 

 What their fate is, whether finally absorbed or whether they 

 last throughout the life of the corpuscle, is not known. 



In this connection I may refer to a curious phenomenon 

 which has come under my notice and upon which I am now 

 working. On one occasion, after bleeding a medium-sized cat 

 very severely (a loss of 90 cc. of blood), it was found upon 

 examining the blood twenty-four hours afterward that the ma- 

 jority of the corpuscles in the animal contained a single good- 

 sized piece of nuclear matter, too large to be called a granule, 

 but having the shape and appearance of a large nucleolus. 

 This fragment stained readily with methyl green just like the 

 nucleus : it could be seen also in the unstained corpuscles as 

 a refractive particle (see Fig. 4). I cannot recall ever having 

 seen anything corresponding to this described, except, perhaps, 

 the first stage of the malarial germ as pictured by Marchiafava, 

 with which, indeed, the appearance seen by me seemed to be 

 identical. Closer examination of the corpuscles showed that 

 the fragment of nuclear matter, as I shall call it, always lay 

 imbedded in the periphery of the spherical corpuscle after 

 treatment with the methyl green. When care was taken to 



