REPORT ON THE MICROSCOPIC EXAMINATION OF BLOOD FROM A 



PATIENT SUFFERING FROM SPLENIC MYELOGENOUS 



LEUKMIA. 



By FRAXK S. ABY 



E. O. C, age fort3'-one, was admitted to the Hospital of 

 the State University of Iowa, March 4th, 1893. An examin- 

 ation showed that the patient . was suffering from splenic 

 m)^elogenous leukaemia. A microscopic investigation of the 

 blood was instituted by the writer, the results of which are 

 embodied in the following report. 



NORMAL HUMAN BLOOD. 



Before proceeding to the report proper, a brief preliminary 

 description of the microscopic characters of normal blood that 

 are used for clinical purposes, will be useful. At least three 

 varieties of corpuscles are found, — coloured, leucocytes, and 

 blood plaques. 



Coloured Corpuscles. 



Size. — The average size is usually taken as about 8" (about 

 jfVirinch). In Heitzmann's Microscopical Morphology of the 

 Animal Body,^ we find the following: "More recently he 

 (Richardson) measured corpuscles of individuals of fourteen 

 different nations, one hundred of each. Of the 1,400 cor- 

 puscles measured, the average was ss^jt (.007878 mm.), the 

 maximum sWt. the minimum ttfVit of an inch; 11 58, or 83 per 

 cent., measured between st'*? and zi^ of an inch in diameter, 

 and consequently under a power of two hundred would 

 appear about the same magnitude; the total number of cor- 



1 Microscopical Morphology of the Animal Body in Health and Disease, 

 by C. Heitzmann. J. H. Vail & Co., New York. 1S83. p. 77. 



