1883.] 



MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 



47 



A Third Corpuscle in the Blood. 



[The following article is an edito- 

 rial review-notice from the pen of Dr. 

 J. B. Marvin, which was printed in the 

 Louisville Medical Navs. — Ed.] 



In November, 1S78, Dr. Richard 

 Norris read a paper before the Birm- 

 ingham Philosophical Society, claim- 

 ing to have discovered a third or 

 invisible corpuscle in the blood, which 

 could be rendered visible by a pecu- 

 liar method of manipulation, viz., 

 packing and changing the refractive 

 index of the serum. The freshly- 

 drawn blood was mixed with a satur- 

 ated saline solution, and then placed 

 in contact with the edge of a cover- 

 glass and slide tightly bound together. 

 By capillary attraction the corpuscles 

 were drawn between the glasses, till 

 they reached a spot where they could 

 not pass owing to the close contact of 

 the glasses. The serum drains off, 

 and the corpuscles '• pack " together. 

 By mixing carmine with a saturated 

 solution of salt, the invisible corpus- 

 cles can be stained. Dr. Norris claims 

 that normal blood teems and swarms 

 with these colorless bodies. These 

 corpuscles, Dr. Morris claimed, are 

 young, immature bodies, and a new 

 and ingenious theory of blood-forma- 

 tion was offered. 



This paper was widely commented 

 upon. The London Medical Record 

 for January, 1880, contained an elabo- 

 rate criticism of Dr. Norris's paper, 

 written by Mrs. Ernest Hart. The 

 critic, in a most logical and convinc- 

 ing manner, demonstrated that the 

 methods of Dr. Norris would cause 

 the appearance he described as nomi- 

 nally existing. She proved that the 

 excessive pressure to which the cor- 

 puscles were submitted by the pack- 

 ing process would cause them to lose 

 their liomoglobin, which tinted the 

 serum, changing its refractive index, 

 and rendering visible corpuscles which 

 had lost their coloring matter. 



Another striking experiment was 

 made by Mrs. Hart. Blood from the 

 same subject, at the same sitting, was 



mixed, respectively with a five-per- 

 cent, solution of sodium sulphate 

 and a saturated solution of sodium 

 chloride, and the corpuscles counted 

 by means of a hematometer. The 

 mean counting gave in the sodium- 

 sulphate solution 4,920,000 corpuscles 

 per cubic millimeter, and in the satur- 

 ated salt-solution 3,260,000, showing 

 that about one-third of the corpuscles 

 had been rendered invisible by the 

 salt solution. 



A few months ago Dr. Norris pub- 

 lished a book, "The Physiology and 

 Pathology of the Blood," in which he 

 gives his views of the morphology of 

 the third corpuscle and describes his 

 methods of demonstrating it. The 

 book is illustrated with one hundred 

 and ninety-six photographs, and gives 

 fully the views and deductions of Dr. 

 Norris. The first part of this book is 

 a republication of his original essay, 

 but modified in many important re- 

 spects to conform to the criticisms of 

 Mrs. Hart. The author is very in- 

 genious in devising methods for 

 aemonstrating his "third corpuscle." 

 He now relies upon the following pro- 

 cesses : (i) Absolute alcohol ; (2) a 

 two-per-cent. solution of osmic acid ; 

 (3) a seventy-five-per-cent solution of 

 sodium chloride ; (4) a soluble col- 

 loid ; (5) the packing when fresh 

 blood is seen under their flexible 

 mica covers, 



Mrs. Hart, in her last criticism, 

 claims that upon reading Dr. Norris's 

 republished paper, often altered in an 

 exactly opposite sense to the original 

 without explanation, and his reply to 

 her first criticism upon the original 

 text, published now for the first time 

 in the same volume with the altered 

 text, it is sometimes difficult to dis- 

 cover to what her strictures allude. 

 She examines Dr. Norris's new meth- 

 ods seriatim, and to our mind proves 

 beyond the shadow of a doubt that 

 the invisible corpuscle is the artificial 

 production of the methods used, and 

 is nothing else than a red corpuscle 

 decolorized out of the body, and is not 

 an actual living corpuscle of the blood. 



