THE BLOOD OF MAGELONA. a 
than the unaltered corpuscle as seen in absolutely fresh blood, 
and I suggest that two or more normal globules have fused 
together and involved the nucleus. The isolated nuclei may 
occur singly or in groups of three or four (fig. 7). 
The size of the nucleus, as seen in sections, is rather greater 
than that of the globules themselves (Pl. 1, fig. 4). The chro- 
matin granules vary considerably in number and arrangement ; 
‘sometimes there is but one such granule, at other times several. 
In the glycerine preparation the former condition is more 
frequent, and the chromosome is then rod-like (fig. 7, a, 0, c). 
A. The readiest way to obtain the blood as free as possible 
from other matters is to dry a worm by placing it on blotting- 
paper, place it ona dry slide, and pierce with a sharp needle the 
proboscis, which is pretty sure to be everted. The blood now 
oozes out slowly, but does not flow freely, the globules adhere 
together in masses, and the masses are connected by narrower 
bridges of corpuscles, giving rise to a coarse network. This 
mass changes its shape and arrangement, as neighbouring 
nodes or clumps run together by the shortening of the bridges ; 
further, very delicate threads (really due to strings of globules) 
are seen (¢.) traversing the meshes, and owing to the continued 
stretching of the narrowing bridges isolated clumps of cor- 
puscles may come to occupy the meshes as these threads 
snap asunder. This change of arrangement may be due to 
evaporation of the plasm and to surface tension. The appear- 
ance presented by such a drop of blood shed in this way, 
and examined without a cover-slip, is shown in fig. 10. 
The whole mass is pink in colour, highly refringent and oily- 
looking; no outlines of the separate corpuscles are visible 
in the larger masses, though in the smaller groups they may 
be recognised. 
When such a drop of blood is covered (fig. 11) the outlines of 
the corpuscles become evident; and though the majority are 
similar in size, here and there larger ones are met with, and it 
is quite possible that the latter are nuclei. The change in 
arrangement of the bridges and meshes is seen to continue. The 
appearance presented by this mass of corpuscles is strikingly 
