116 UR. J. BRAXTON HICKS. 



in the fluid, transparent, but with slightly granular surface. 

 A large number were visible floating about, but it was im- 

 possible to say that all were from the same sources. Some, 

 no doubt, were, and from the exact resemblance of those 

 free to those ready to be so one can hardly assign them a 

 different origin. Be this as it may, it was clear that from 

 the stroma of the red corpuscle small, transparent, colourless 

 globular bodies were set free. Their diameter, in this in- 

 stance, was about the t ,) qo p th of an inch. These corpuscles 

 had, doubtless, been eff"used into the ovarian cyst, and had 

 been exposed to a more natural experiment, and had been in 

 stricter relation with vital forces than when held in micro- 

 scopical stages. The shape which the " zoid" or stroma 

 more generally assumed was that of a semilunar character, 

 the " cecoid" occupying the cavity. 



The fluid was, as before stated, of dark brown colour, ot 

 mucous consistence, highly coagulable, and of the sp. gr. 

 1030. The red blood-corpuscles least changed were about 

 the ordinary size. 



Observation 2, — In consequence of the foregoing facts, I 

 instituted an experiment to know what change occurred in 

 the red corpuscle within a small serous vesicle on my hand. 

 I opened it, and found it free from any cells. I then caused 

 a small proportion of blood to flow into it ; after a short time 

 (the time, unfortunately, is not mentioned in my notes, but, 

 probably, about half an hour) I found the change repre- 

 sented at fig. 2. It is very like that noticed in the first 

 observation. 



Observation 3. — Blood was mixed with the serum from a 

 dead body. The result is not dissimilar to the above ob- 

 servations, the concave and double Avatch-glass forms being 

 observable (fig. 3). 



Observation 4. — Again, in September, 1859, I examined 

 the fluid of an ovarian tumour shortly after tapping, and 

 found the condition of the red corpuscle altered very much ; 

 they were found as in the first observations ; they are draAvn 

 at fig. 4 ; but transparent globules (cecoids), which are ex- 

 pelled from each, are generally more than one. Three or 

 four were noticed in a few. 



The sp. gr. of the fluid was 1025, of mucoid consistence, 

 alkaline. There were many small transparent cellules 

 throughout the fluid, slightly granular on the surface, which 

 were exactly like those seen emerging from the red corpuscles. 

 Besides these were small fat-globules and aggregations of 

 them with albumen. 



Observation 5. — Another condition, Avhere the corpuscle 



