1880.] 



MICROSCOPICAL JOLIENAL. 



209 



are laid away in drawers, and after 

 a time, 3 days to 3 weeks, as my 

 work allows, I coat the cells again. 

 And when this second coat is dry, 

 any time after a week, I consider 

 the cells fit for use. In mounting 

 I use nothing to fasten the object 

 to the wax, but press it down with 

 a needle or a shaved splint of whale- 

 bone, or the linger end in many 

 eases. Objects in fluid I allow to 

 evaporate in the cell and leave 

 covered from one night to a day or 

 two, as may be. When I come to 

 cover the cells I use covers cut by 

 my own cover cutter just large 

 enough to rest inside the brass rings 

 without falling through. Then the 

 angle between the edge of cover 

 and top of the cell is tilled up with 

 wax by means of a pointed knife- 

 blade, using the wax as putty is 

 used on a window. The mounts 

 can now be left for linishing till a 

 leisure time, but I usually apply a 

 light coat of cement before putting 

 them away, and at any time after- 

 ward when I find time I go over 

 them again and usually a third time 

 before finishing. I have cells made 

 seven months ago, and when I come 

 to use them for mounting, I shall 

 feel no dread of their afterward be- 

 coming dim. 



Blood-corpuscles. 



An article recently published in 

 the Medical Record^ by F. H. 

 Cathcart, M. D., afford a very in- 

 teresting summary of the views 

 which prevail at the present day 

 concerning the origin of blood- 

 corpuscles and their structure. A 

 few extracts from that article can- 

 not fail to be of interest. It is 

 difficult for us to conceive of the 

 conditions of physiology at the time 

 when the circulation of blood was 

 unknown, and it is not surprising 

 that we should hear of strange no- 



tions and absurd fancies which held 

 sway at that time — three centuries 

 ago. The following extracts are 

 taken from the article mentioned 

 above : — 



" Now, it might be interesting, 

 perhaps, to give an elaborate account 

 of the ideas men early entertainecj 

 respecting this important tissue : 

 but as most of these are so absurd, 

 and the labor to collect them so 

 great, it may here be agreeably 

 dismissed. Suffice it to say, however, 

 that not only was the circulation 

 totally unknown, not even suspected 

 by them, but the blood itself held 

 no place of any value in the curious 

 speculations that formed the basis 

 of their systems. Its existence in 

 the economy was regarded rather 

 as an accident than as a means of 

 nutrition, and the vessels in which 

 it is contained were supposed to 

 subserve quite a different end. Hip- 

 pocrates did not discriminate at all 

 between arteries and veins. Ari- 

 stotle did recognize the difference, 

 but yet held the blood as subsidiary 

 to the vessels. He differed from 

 his predecessors in maintaining that 

 the veins arose in the heart, while 

 they maintained that they arose in 

 the head. Galen endorsed essen- 

 tially the same ideas, except that 

 he looked upon the liver as the 

 source of the veins. So great was 

 the authority of these men and the 

 reverence for them during the mid- 

 dle ages, that none dared to dispute 

 them, and their empty assumptions 

 held their ground. Even Mondino, 

 who dissected at Bologna, 1315; 

 Achillini, Scarpa, and Messa, in 

 Italy ; Sylvius and Stephanius, in 

 France ; Vesalius, a native of Brus- 

 sels ; Fallopius, his successor at 

 Padua, and Eustachius, said naught 

 to contradict them. The infortu- 

 nate Servetus, 1552, was the first to 

 distinctly speak of a circulation now 

 termed pulmonic : but the value of 



