972 



1891). He ascribed lo the giant-cells a variety of functions, the 

 principal of which was no doubt a phagocj'tic one. Flp:mming is 

 more decided in his opinion, asserting that Ihe giant-cells, wherever 

 they appear, are pathological products, that are without a special 

 function and even succumb. Yon Kostanecki (1892) maintains that he 

 has seen the giant-cells break up into smaller cells, and also admits 

 a phagocytic function. On this point he is, as he himself says, at 

 variance with Ran vier and Kubokn who hold the giant-cells to be 

 "cellules vasoformatives". Afterwards this "vasoformative function" 

 turned out to be merely a degeneration process. Yon Kostanecki 

 also refuses to agree with van der Stricht, who asserts that the nuclei of 

 the phagocyted cells themselves tend to enlarge the nucleus of the 

 giant-cells, and he, therefore, maintains that tliere is no reason for 

 the conclusion that the giant-cells have been made up of different 

 smaller cells. Finally the says about this function : "Meinen Erfah- 

 rungen nach muss ich aufs entschiedenste die Ansicht vertreten, dass 

 die Riesenzellen der embryonalen Leber — fur andere blutbildende 

 Organe der Saugetiere wird die Ansicht auch von manchen Auloien 

 verfochten — , so autfallig und interessant sie in ihrer Form and in 

 ihren Lebensersclieinnngen auch sein mogen, beziiglich ihrer Funktion 

 und ihres Verhaltnisses zum Vorgang der Bhitbilding vöUig neben- 

 sachlich und bedeutungslos sind". 



Saxer (1896) discusses this point at greater length, saying that 

 some appearances led him to suppose that the giant-cells could take 

 up smaller cells as well as be broken up into others. He disputes 

 Flemmino's view that the giant-cells are only an "abgearlete und 

 ausgeartete" form of cells. Saxer believes there is a certain relation 

 to hematogenesis, but he leaves this point undecided. In the end he 

 says : "Sodass es in dev That unmöglich erscheint ans den ver- 

 schiedenen Erscheinungsphasen einen einheitlichen Yorgang zu 

 konstruieren". 



Maxdiow (1908) supposes that the giant-cells occur where erythro- 

 poësis and granulopoësis take place, though he never observed any 

 splitting into smaller mononuclear cells. 



As early as (1901) Sophie Lifschitz had already pointed in her 

 thesis to a parallelism between erythropoësis and the number of 

 megakaryocytes in the spleen of the human fetus. 



It appears, then, that many observers admit a relation to the 

 formation of white and red bloodcorpuscles, but the most recent 

 view is that of Wright (1906) and Ogata (1912) that the giant-cells 

 form and split up thrombocytes or bloodplatelets. 



We see, then, that the theories regarding the fate of megakaryo- 



