



THE MICROSCOPE. 113 



BEHAVIOR OF THE WHITE CORPUSCLE. 



BY R. J. NUNN, M. D., SAVANNAH, GA. 



N the 7th of August, 1882, I was examining the blood of a 



patient, a robust man in fine health. The blood seemed in 

 excellent condition; the proportions of the elements were all that 

 could be desired. The medical history of the case has nothing to 

 do with this observation and hence is omitted. 



In the specimen of blood examined there were a few of those 

 glistening round bodies which are present more or less in all blood 

 that I have examined. The name and functions of these bodies are 

 alike unknown to me and are, I believe, matters of dispute among 

 histologists at present; but whatever end they may fulfill they have 

 been present in the greatest number in the blood of debilitated 

 patients who were for the most part consumptives; still, as before 

 remarked, they have been observed in the healthiest blood. 



In the blood in question the white corpuscles were unusually 

 large and active, and one in particular attracted my attention by the 

 rapidity of its movements. I saw it glide toward one of these glis- 

 tening bodies and surround it, insinuate itself underneath it, and, so 

 to speak, got the body upon its (the corpuscle's) back. Carrying 

 this body along it approached another and executed the same 

 manoeuvre, and so with another and another until six of these bodies 

 of different sizes were upon the white corpuscle. Then one after 

 another sank into the interior of the white corpuscle and could be 

 seen in it as dark specks, the shade gradually becoming less deep as 

 if the bodies slowly dissolved away, the smallest first disappearing. 



The sixth body did not sink into the corpuscle, but the cor- 

 puscle slid from under it and left it resting upon the slide. The 

 corpuscle next retreated a short distance and extending another part 

 of its substance again approached the body and nearly surrounded 

 it. Again the corpuscle retreated and again returning endeavored 

 apparently to surround the body, but unsuccessfully. These move- 

 ments of apparent attack and retreat were repeated several times, 

 and at last the corpuscle moved off a distance equal to the diameter 

 of six or seven red corpuscles. I thought then the performance was 

 at an end, but no, the corpuscle suddenly stopped and returned 

 again to the body; this time it had so rolled over as to present to 

 the body the exact place through which the largest of the other five 



