STRUCTURAL RELATIONS OF RED BLOOD-CORPUSCLES. 381 



the nucleus only. Purther, it frequently appears elongated to an 

 extent {a, b) that does not usually occur in nuclei, and finally a 

 peculiar transverse striation {s) is often seen on it, which points 

 to special structural relations. 



I will, however, not spend more time over these matters, which 

 contain much that is still obscure. There are in every prepara- 

 tion numerous examples, which afford a clue to the right 

 understanding of the peculiarities here met with in the granular 

 substance of the red blood-corpuscles. 



The least ambiguous forms, which at once indicate the struc- 

 ture, are represented in figs. 3 and 4. Those in the former 

 figure are frequently seen, those in the latter more rarely. Let 

 us, therefore, confine our attention in the first place to the 

 former. 



Amongst them we find blood-corpuscles of irregular form, 

 whose granular substance is accumulated more or less to one 

 side of the interior, and throws out numerous radiating processes 

 in the shape of finely granular threads into the adjacent ho- 

 mogeneous cortical layer (fig. 3). The former, with all its 

 processes, is more darkly stained with carmine or eosine than the 

 latter. This property, as well as the morphological relations 

 described, are so characteristic that the granular substance is 

 easily recognised as a ball of protoplasm surrounded by the 

 homogeneous cortex. Every doubt, however, with regard to 

 the correctness of this interpretation, is removed by a consi- 

 deration of the blood-corpuscles represented in fig. 4. 



3. Blood-corpuscles, in which three parts can he distinguished : 

 [a) the bright homogeneous cortical layer ; ((5) the granular pro- 

 toplasm, which stains more deeply with carmine ; and [c) a clear 

 nucleus, enclosed in the latter, and containing a bright nucleolus 

 (fig. 4). 



With regard to the homogeneous cortical layer of these cells, 

 I have nothing to add to what has been already said about it. 

 The enclosed protoplasm is very variously shaped, being at one 

 time collected into a ball {a), at another time more extended (c), 

 and, again, in other cases provided on all sides with radiating 

 processes {b). Finally the nucleus, when I could distinguish it 

 clearly, had always a circular outline, and could be recognised as 

 a bright homogeneous spot in the red granular protoplasm. 

 Whether it had not also become stained by the carmine could 

 not with certainty be ascertained ; at all events, the staining, if 

 present, was very slight, which rendered the contrast between it 

 and the red-stained protoplasm so much the more conspicuous. 

 The bright nucleolus was also in all these cases characteristic of 

 the nucleus, and no one can deny that in the red blood-corpuscles 



