42 QUARTERLY CHRONICLE. 



the Morphological Constitution of the Red Corpuscles of the 

 Blood" by Professor Brucke. 



On treating tlie red corpuscles of the blood of the Tritons 

 with boracic acid, Brucke found that they consist of two 

 distinct parts, which he names, the one zooid, the other 

 (Bcoid. Having cut off the head of a living Triton, he let 

 the blood drop into a solution which contained one part of 

 boracic acid dissolved in one hundred parts of water ; the 

 globules fell to the bottom, and were examined with the im- 

 mersion lens of Hartnack. Then were recognised two 

 parts — the one ■ uncoloured and diaphanous, which is the 

 oecoid ; the other coloured with the colour of the globules, 

 which is the zooid. At first the zooid is completely Avithin 

 the oecoid, then it is implanted upon it, and finally in many 

 cases it becomes entirely separated. The aecoid is not the 

 supposed membrane of the globules, for there is no sudden 

 rupture, but a gentle develoi)ment, by which the zooid se- 

 parates itself from the oecoid. The oecoid is a soft substance 

 which takes a spheroid or ellipsoid form during and after the 

 act of separation ; sometimes there is to be seen the vestige of a 

 crater in which the zooid was last implanted before separation. 



The zooid is made up of two different parts — of a nucleus 

 which can be seen in the living corpuscle as a colourless 

 elliptical spot, and of a part of the corpuscle which contains 

 all the haemoglobin (cruorine), and which in the living state 

 is spread out in the entire globule, but contracts itself round 

 the nucleus under the influence of boracic acid. Sometimes 

 there may be seen coloured ]n-olongations of the zooid in 

 some number, which pass to the periphery of the cccoid, 

 which then has preserved the form of the globule almost un- 

 altered. It seems, therefore, that the tracts, according to 

 which the coloured substance of the zooid is distributed in 

 the globule when alive and whole, are disposed in a radial 

 manner ; and that the form of the living corpuscle is the 

 consequence of the intimate junction of the zooid with the 

 oecoid ; in fact, that this changes its form during the separa- 

 tion not by a vital act, but as the result of the same physical 

 causes by which fluid masses floating in fluids of the same 

 density tend to assume the spherical form. The action of 

 boracic acid on non-nucleated corpuscles is said to be very 

 curious, but it is not given in detail. 



Bibliotheque Univers. Oct., 1867. — " The Development of 

 Sepiola" by Elias Mecznikow. 



A- notice of this memoir, which appeared in Russian, is 

 given by M. Claparede. Van Beneden and Kolliker have 

 investigated the embryology of the Cephalopoda, but have 



