MEMORANDA. 169 



broke up ; after a short time I found left under the mkro- 

 scope many white corpuscles, and a number of cellaeform 

 bodies which I compared to starch corpuscles ; these bodies 

 were of irregular size, with a minute nucleus, presented an 

 apparent lamination, were generally ovate, flattened and some 

 what irregular in their outline, and bore all the appearance of 

 these vegetable corpuscles. Fancying that they might be 

 some foreign matters obtained from the water, which had been 

 mixed with the blood, I requested a fresh supply of water in 

 perfectly clean utensils, and used every precaution to obviate 

 any accidental introduction of starch. Still upon placing 

 some more blood under the field of the microscope I olDserved 

 these bodies. One fact was evident, that if I put some of 

 the blood under the microscope without the addition of water, 

 the blood corpuscles ran together and broke up, without 

 showing any of the bodies I imagined to be starch corpuscles. 

 Wlien developed to their ordinary size, they were about 

 l-500th of an inch in diameter, which would make them too 

 large to pass the generality of capillary vessels ; after some 

 water had been added to the blood these corpuscles, not at 

 first remarkable, after a time became very conspicuous, and 

 were evidently fully developed by the water they had absorbed. 

 The dense medium in which these bodies previously existed 

 was certainly not favourable to their increase of size, but, as 

 soon as a finer fluid had been added, they quickly enlarged 

 and eventually assumed the appearance which attracted my 

 notice. 



Greatly surprised, I mentioned the fact to my patient, 

 telling him that I must be deceived by some unaccountable 

 accident, and that the introduction of the starch into the blood 

 must depend upon some fortuitous circumstances, as I had 

 never before heard of such a case, and did not believe that a 

 vegetable product like starch could exist in the blood of man. 

 So convinced was 1 that the product observable in the field 

 of the microscope was starch, that I obtained some flour and 

 placed it under similar circumstances in the field of the 

 microscope, its apparent identity was sufficiently manifest ; 

 still fearing that there must be some mistake, I did not ven- 

 ture to imagine that there could be any reality in my discovery 

 of starch in the blood of man, and consequently passed the 

 matter over without further observation. At a subsequent 

 period I discovered with my friend. Dr. Barrett, similar bodies 

 during our microscopic observations of the matter contained 

 in the eye of a boy, which had been removed in consequence 

 of fungus hcematodes, and 1 have continually observed similar 

 corpuscles in specimens of urine submitted to the same test. 



