158 THe Microscope. 
chronic wasting diseases—cachexiz—with or without fever; 
debilitated persons, the subjects of phthisis, cancer or other 
chronic wasting diseases present a marked increase. In phthisis 
the ratio of the plaques to the red corpuscles may be as high as 
1to 5. (2) In acute sthenic fevers they are not increased in 
the early stages. As the disease advances, however, and the 
patient becomes weaker and more debilitated the increase is 
marked asarule, This is especially well seen in typhoid fever, 
in which during the first week the number of plaques may not 
rise above normal, while in the third and fourth weeks there is 
usually a large increase. (3) In the so-called blood diseases 
the number of the plaques is variable. For example, many ob- 
servers have noticed large numbers in certain cases of leukee- 
mia, but in other cases the increase is not apparent; and the 
same is true of lymphatic anemia. In some cases of Hodgkin’s 
disease Dr. Osler has seen the plaques in very large numbers; 
they may be scanty in profound anzmia; and in cases of per- 
nicious anzemia the clusters of plaques may be almost absent, 
or much more scanty than in health. 
It must be acknowledged that the theory of Hayem, that 
the plaques are hzmatoblasts, is strongly supported. He be- 
lieves that the red discs are nucleated, and in an-article in the 
Archives de Physiologie three years ago he asserted with confi- 
dence that the plaques arenucleated. If,as Hayem asserts, the 
plaques are biconcova, this is another point of resemblance. 
Laker agrees with Hayem on this point, but Bizzozero and 
Schimmelbush assert that they only become biconcova when 
drawn into a salt solution or Hayem’s fluid. Kemp, however, 
asserts that in addition to seeing them on edge and making out 
their characteristic dumb-bell shape, he has succeeded several 
times in seeing them roll over and over in a very slow current, 
so that at least in osmzc acid and Hayem’s solution he was able 
to convince himself beyond all question of their biconcavity. 
The biconcayvity is also shown in a photograph made from a 
specimen stained with Bismarck brown. Atanasef regards 
Hayem’s “ nucleus ” as only a precipitation of granules in the 
center of the plaque, and Schimmelbusch takes a similar 
ground. Kemp has failed to see anything which he regards as 
a nucleus, and thinks that the concavity seen when examining 
full on the surface may be very probably mistaken for a nucleus. 
