36 
2. ADDITIONAL MEASUREMENTS OF THE Rep CoRPUSCLES OF THE 
Bxioop or Vertesrata. No.4. By Georce Guiiuiver, F.R.S. 
A reference to the preceding numbers of these papers will be found 
in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society, October 14, 1845, p. 93, 
where are also tables of my measurements of the blood-corpuscles 
up to that date, with summary notices of the most remarkable results 
as to the size of those corpuscles in vertebrate animals. A note con- 
cerning the size of the blood-corpuscles of Birds is given in the same 
Proceedings for March 24, 1846: and numerous observations on 
the size, shape, and structure of the blood-corpuscles of Vertebrata 
are contained in my Notes to the edition of Hewson’s Works, lately 
printed for the Sydenham Society. 
The following measurements, like all my former ones, are expressed 
in vulgar fractions of an English inch, and for the sake of brevity, on 
this occasion the average sizes only are given: L.D. denotes the long 
diameter and 8.D. the short diameter of the corpuscles. A few re- 
marks may be now added to illustrate the bare figures. 
After my observation (see Dublin Medical Press for November 
1839, and Proceedings of the Zoological Society, No. CXV. p. 107) 
of the remarkable minuteness of the red corpuscles of the blood of 
the Napu Musk Deer, it was to be expected that the corresponding 
corpuscles in the other species of Moschus would have a similar cha- 
racter. Accordingly, in Stanley’s Musk Deer I found those corpus- 
cles almost as small; and in my late measurements, the average of 
which is now given, of the blood-corpuscles of the Meminna Deer, 
I could perceive no difference between them and those of the Napu 
Musk Deer. 
In the books of physiology, before the observations just mentioned, 
the blood-corpuscles of the Goat used to be described as the smallest 
in the Mammalia (see Prevost and Dumas; and Miiller, Physiology, 
tr. by Dr. Baly, 1838, vol. i. p. 101; Mandl, Anatomie Générale, 
1843, p. 248); but to the list of animals in which I have already 
found those corpuscles still smaller, are now to be added the Me- 
minna and two species of Brocket Deer. 
In the Ked Brocket Deer (a female) the majority of the blood- 
corpuscles were of the spear-shaped, lunated, and sigmoidal forms, 
described and figured from the blood of some other Cervide in the 
Lond. and Edin. Philosophical Magazine, November 1840, p. 329, 
and noticed in my Appendix to Gerber’s Anatomy, p. 11 to 12: there 
were also many of the common circular corpuscles. The blood- 
corpuscles of a new species of Brocket Deer (a male, from Brazil) 
were of the usual circular shape. In the magazine above-cited it is 
suggested that those irregular forms may result from changes in the 
common circular discs ; and this now appears more probable trom the 
facts just mentioned. The cause of these curious changes in the 
shape of the blood-dises is well-deserving of further inquiry. 
The blood-corpuscles of the Aurochs are scarcely distinguishable 
in any respect from those of its congener the Bison and of some other 
large ruminants. 
