13 



March 9, 1 847. 

 William Yarrell, Esq., Vicc-President, in the Chair. 



The folloNving Communications \vcie read : — 



1. Note on the Red Corpuscles of tue Blood of the Meminna 

 Deer {Moschus Meminna,ETx].) . By George Gulliveu, F.R.S. 



After I had made known the curious minuteness of the red cor- 

 puscles of the blood of that little ruminant the Napu Mušk Deer 

 (see Dublin Medical Press, Nov. 27, 1839, and Proceedings of the 

 Zoological Society, No. CXV.), it was to be expected that these 

 corpuscles vvould present the šame character in the ręst of the genus. 

 Accordingly, I some time ago found this to be the case in the Stanley 

 Mušk Deer (see Proceedings of the Zoological Society, May 9, 1843, 

 page 66) ; and it appears, from an examination which I have lately 

 made of the blood-corpuscles of the Meminna Deer, that these are 

 not distinguishable in size from those of the Napu Mušk Deer. 



The following measurements of the red corpuscles of the blood of 

 the Meminna Deer exactly agree with the measurements of the cor- 

 responding corpuscles of the Napu Mušk Deer. They are, as usual, 

 given in vulgar fractions of an Englisli inch : — 



134001^ 



1 2nno I '-^"'^™o^ sizes. 



16000 Smallsize. 

 9600 Large size. 



12325 Average of all the above sizes. 



So minute are these corpuscles, that vastnumbers of them measure 

 no more over the flat surface of the disc than the edge or thickness 

 of the red corpuscle of human blood, the average of \vhich appears 

 from my measurements to be ^^į^^ th of an inch. 



The size of the blood-corpuscles in the ruminants affords a good 

 illustration of the law, which I have elsewhere deduced from very 

 numerous measurements (see Appendix to the English edition of 

 Gerber's Anatomy, p. 4 ; Proceedings of the Zoological Society, 

 Oct. 14, 1845, p. 94, and March 24, 1846, p. 26; and the Notės 

 xcviii and cxviii* to my edition of Hewson's \vorks printed for the 

 Sydenham Society), that in the smallest species of a natūrai order 

 or family of mammals the blood-discs are much more minute than in 

 the largest species of that family ; -n-hile in the entire class of Birds, 

 the law as to the size of the blood-corpuscles is the šame as in a 

 single order of mammals. 



Therefore, when that eminent inąuirer He\vson statės that these 

 corpuscles are not larger in the largest animals, citing in support of 

 his argument the Ox and Mouse, it mušt be understood as applicable 



No. CLXIX. — Proceedings of the Zoological Society. 



