1880.] 



MICKOSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 



218 



tissue they were not cylindrical, but 

 seemed like sinuses, and the marrow 

 was in immediate contact with the 

 bone. Here and there in the marrow 

 were found tine laminated fibres in 

 wavy bundles. From these radiated 

 in various directions very elegant ar- 

 rangement of iibres, medullary cells, 

 amorphous matter, and capillaries. 

 * * * The first thing noticed 

 by Neumann and Bizzozero was that 

 certain cells in the marrow present- 

 ed amoeboid movements like white 

 corpuscles. They are numerous, 

 and in structure appear to be iden- 

 tical with "leucocytes." Besides 

 these there were noticed other cells 

 structurally like white blood-cor- 

 puscles, but having a distinct yellow 

 or red tinge and a nucleus — in 

 short, characters which to us, as 

 well as to Neumann, Bizzozero, 

 Eales, and Hand, seem to place 

 them as transition types between 

 the white and red corpuscles. * * * 

 " We have thus shown that in the 

 red marrow of the bones we have 

 a tissue abundant in 'lymphoid' 

 elements, and resembling, if not 

 identical with ' adenoid ' tissue, 

 the tissue constituting the lympha- 

 tics and the spleen ; second, that in 

 the meshes of this tissue there is an 

 abundance of capillaries, the pecu- 

 liarity of which is that their calibre 

 is consideral)ly larger than the ar- 

 teries immediately supplying them ; 

 third, that in these meshes and their 

 capillaries we find ' medullo-cells,' 

 ^lymphoid cells,' resembling the 

 white blood-corpuscles, transitional 

 cells which are red and nucleated, 

 true red blood-corpuscles non-nucle- 

 ated, and l)etween these extremes 

 all shades of transition. Now, with 

 these data, the question at once 

 arises : What is the connection 

 between them ? Are the ' lym- 

 phoid' cells in the blood derived 

 from those in the ' medullary tis- 

 sue, ' or are the ones in the latter 



derived from those in the blood i We 

 cannot but believe that the former 

 opinion is the correct one ; not that 

 we would wish to assert that all the 

 white blood-corpuscles are formed 

 from the 'medullary tissues,' but 

 that it takes part in their production, 

 the same as we have shown to be the 

 case with the lymphatic glands and 

 the spleen. These cells find their 

 way into the blood-current by a 

 process of immigration, in a manner 

 the same as in inflammation they 

 find their way out. * * * 



" The process of transformation of 

 the ' lymphoid-cells ' of the me- 

 dulla, or of the white blood-corpus- 

 cles into red ones, appears to us, 

 judging from the intermediate 

 forms seen in the spleen and in the 

 red marrow of bones to be as 

 follows : the granulations in the 

 ' medullary lymphoid-cells ' ( ana- 

 logous to white blood-corpuscles), 

 diminish from the periphery, and 

 seem to collect more or less about 

 the central nucleus, and thus pro- 

 duce the cell with a large ' granu- 

 lated nucleus;' at the same time 

 the rest of the cell becomes tinged 

 reddish, and we have formed the 

 ' transitional ' nucleated red blood- 

 corpuscle. Now, as to the manner 

 in which this latter becomes a non- 

 nucleated one opinions still differ, 

 and various explanations are advan- 

 ced by the different observers. 

 Bizzozero and Hand hold that it is 

 the freed nucleus of the former ; 

 that the granulations of the nucle- 

 ated red ' transitional ' cell dis- 

 appear, and the nucleus is liberated 

 to increase in size and form the red 

 corpuscle. 



"With this opinion we do not 

 agree ; rather do we believe the 

 red ' transitional ' form to be 

 changed in its entirety into the red ; 

 that the ' Ij^mphoid cell ' or white 

 corpuscle gives origin to the red by 

 a transformation of its entire struc- 



