MEMOIRS. 



]VoTE on the Formation of Tibrine. By Mrs. Ernest Hart. 

 (With Plate XXI.) 



The research, of which this paper is a record, was made in the 

 laboratory of M. Ranvier, at the College de Prance, in the 

 Autumn of 1879. It has remained so long unpublished 

 because I was always in hopes of being able to make the work 

 more complete and exhaustive. In presenting it now for pub- 

 hcation and criticism, I do so with great diffidence, knowing 

 that the work is incomplete; yet I am assured by competent 

 authorities that, viewed in connection with other work on this 

 subject now being carried on in various parts of the world, it 

 may not be without utility and suggestiveness, as an addition to 

 the data for the investigation of the production of fibrine. 



At the conclusion of the little paper which I published in the 

 ' London Medical Record ' in January, 1880, on the Norris cor- 

 puscle, I stated my opinion that the colourless corpuscles de- 

 scribed by Dr. Norris, and seen by him and others who follow his 

 methods, " are red corpuscles that have undergone post mortem 

 changes prior to taking part in the formation of the fibrine. 

 On this subject I hope shortly to publish some further obser- 

 vations." It was in repeating Dr. Norris's work on the invi- 

 sible corpuscles, and by means of the very ingenious methods 

 which he has invented to obtain exceedingly fine films of blood, 

 that I observed the appearances I am about to describe. It 

 will perhaps be remembered that Dr. Norris^s methods consist in 

 what he calls '^ isolation" and "packing." The method of 

 " isolation," which is that which I found so very useful, is as 

 follows : — A perfectly smooth and level slide is chosen, and at 

 some slight distance from the centre a small hole is drilled into 

 which a metal eyelet is inserted, care being taken that the metal 

 edge is not raised above the glass surface. A smooth and level 

 thin cover-glass is now chosen and strapped on to the slide by 

 means of a narrow piece of diachylon plaster, so that the free 



VOL. XXII. NEW SER. R 



