Addison, on Blood-corpuscles. 23 



Tlie following have been found to succeed in producing the 

 tailed forms of corpuscles (fig. 4) : 



1. Sherry wine. 



2. Sherry wine and saline solution. 



3. One part fresh urine and two or three parts sherry wine. 



4. Port wine and quinine.— Dissolve with a gentle warmth 

 one grain of sulphate of quinine in half a fluid ounce of port 

 wine ; set it by for two or three days, and then filter the 

 liquid. 



5. A mixture of the sherry wine and the saline solution 

 with port wine and quinine. — This mixture seems to improve 

 by keeping. 



The following experiments have been tried : 



1. One fluid drachm of the mixture No. 5 and one grain 

 of sulphate of strychnia, shaken together. — Tails produced. 



2. One fluid drachm of No. 5 and one grain of acetate of 

 morphia. — Tails produced. 



3. One fluid drachm of No. 5 and liquor potassee, just suf- 

 ficient to remove the acid reaction of the mixed wines. — No 

 tails appeared. 



In all these experiments there is no mixing together of the 

 blood and the extraneous fluid previous to the application of 

 the covering-glass, hence there are various degrees of inter- 

 mingling between the added fluid and the natural fluid of the 

 blood, and it is only where these two fluids are mixed in cer- 

 tain unascertainable proportions that the specific phenomena 

 are to be seen. 



Blood consists of a fluid — the liquor sanguinis — and the cor- 

 puscles ; therefore, before arriving at any conclusion from the 

 preceding experiments, it will be necessary to consider the 

 part played by the fluid element of the blood. The added 

 fluids, when they come, undiluted by the liquor sanguinis, 

 into contact with the red corpuscles, destroy them. The 

 changes of form of the corpuscles are therefore effected, not 

 by the extraneous or added fluid alone, but by a mixture of the 

 added liquid and the liquor sanguinis ; and we conceive it to 

 be correct to regard the phenomena described as the results 

 of a change in the quality of the liquor sanguinis, wrought by 

 the added liquor. It is to an unascertained mixture of the 

 extraneous fluid and the natural blood-fluid that the various 

 aspects of the corpuscles must be ascribed. It is well known 

 how speedily elements of diet, medicinal substances, and poi- 

 sons, are found in the liquor sanguinis, and these experiments 

 show that corpuscles which have been changed in their form 

 from change in the quality of the liquor sanguinis may be 

 altered back again to their normal form by a counteracting 



