PKOGEESS OF MICROSCOPICAL SCIENCE. 203 



vessels and glands, it may be supposed that such leucocytoses, which 

 consist in a temj)orary increase of the colourless blood-corpuscles, are 

 of frequent occurrence ; and this is indeed observed in a host of 

 inflammatory and other diseases affecting the horse, such as glanders, 

 farcy, &c. After large blood-lettings, the increase of white blood- 

 corpuscles in the horse may go -so far, that the coloured and colouidess 

 corjjuscles appear nearly equal in number. 



Counting the Blood - corpuscles in cases of Transfusion. — 

 M. Brouardel gives, according to the ' Medical Eecord,' an interesting 

 report on a case of transfusion of blood in an individual dying of 

 prostration from incoercible vomiting after swallowing sulphuric 

 acid. 150 gi-ammes of blood not deiibrinized, taken from his house- 

 surgeon, M. Landouzy, were injected into the vein of the arm. The 

 immediate consequences were favourable, but in twenty-six hours a 

 relapse occurred, and the patient died with hepatization of the lower 

 lobes of the lung. The necropsy showed ulceration of the pylorus. 

 This observation showed this important point, that the application of 

 M. Malassez's new method of numeration of the blood-corpuscles * 

 has allowed it to be ascertained that a rapid destruction of the 

 elements of the blood occurs when the individual cannot repair the 

 incessant losses of the economy ; while, in an individual in good 

 health, repair is rapidly effected. Thus the jiatient had 3,200,000 red 

 corpuscles in the cubic millimetre of blood ; after the injection of 

 150 grammes of blood the figure was raised ; but thirty hours 

 afterwards it was again at the previous figure of 3,200,000 ; while in 

 M. Landouzy, who had lost 300 grammes of blood, the number of 

 blood-corpuscles before the bleeding was 4,300,000, immediately after 

 it 4,000,000, and twelve hom-s afterwards 4,100,000. M. Dujardin- 

 Beaumetz related a case of obstinate amemia, in which transfusion 

 ju-oduced a temporary benefit, as in the above case, and was twice 

 repeated when that effect had passed off ; the amelioration after the 

 third transfusion was, however, of very brief duration, and the patient 

 died on the following day. The results of the enumeration of the 

 corpuscles mentioned above, give a key to the transitory effects of 

 transfusion in these cases. 



The Development of the Lobster. — A very good paper, which 

 originally appeared in the Transactions of the Connecticut Academy 

 (vol. vii.), is abstracted in the ' American Naturalist ' for July, 

 1874. It is by Mr. S. I. Smith, Assistant in the Sheffield School, New 

 Haven, U.S.A. It seems that the season at which the female lobsters 

 carry eggs varies much on different j)arts of the coast. Mr. Smith 

 states that lobsters from New London and Stonington, Conn., are with 

 eggs in April and May, while at Halifax he found them with eggs, in 

 which the embryos were just beginning to develop, early in September. 

 The writer says that he has seen them in Salem with the embryos 

 ready to hatch in the middle of May, and has been told by Mr. J. H. 

 Emerton that they also breed here in November. It is not impossible 

 that they breed at intervals throughout the year. This is an impor- 



* ' Lomlou Medical Record,' January 8, 1873. 



