714 SPECIAL HISTOLOGY. 



("Zeitsch. fur wissen. Zool.," I. p. 266, Todd's "Cyclop, of Anat." 

 Art. " Spleen," p. 792, and Mikros. Anat., II. p. 280), in the blood of 

 the Dog, of Fishes, and of a Python ; sometimes within the blood- 

 globules, sometimes free in the blood, particularly of the liver and 

 spleen. Their occurrence in the former situation especially, appeared 

 to me to prove that they exist in the blood during life, and consist of 

 a substance allied to hematin and hematoidin (Virchow) ; but I also 

 showed that they were soluble in acetic and nitric acids, and in caustic 

 alkalies, and consequently that they are not identical with hematoidin. 

 Quite recently, Funke, without being acquainted with my observations, 

 has independently noticed these crystals in the blood of the Horse, 

 Dog, Man, and Fishes, and instituted very careful researches with re- 

 spect to them (" De sanguine vense lienalis," Lips., 1851; also in 

 Henle's " Zeitsch. N. Folge," Bd. I. p. 172, and " Neue Beob. ub. d. 

 Krystalle d. Milzvenen- u. Fischblutes," ibid., II. p. 199), by which it 

 is rendered certain that these crystals arise out of the body. For more 

 particulars concerning them reference may be made to the works cited,* 

 and I will here only further notice that the crystals arc most readily 

 formed, if a drop of blood covered with a piece of glass be allowed nearly 

 to dry, and a small quantity of water be added ; moreover, that the 

 crystals are formed not only in the blood of the splenic vein, as it at 

 first seemed, but in other kinds of blood also, in Man (I can obtain 

 crystals in my own venous blood) and other animals. They assume the 

 form of red or pale needles, columns, and plates, probably belonging to 

 the rhombic system (Funke), and also tetrahedral (in the Guinea Pig, 

 Lehmann, Funke), arid are characterized by their little permanency, 

 since they perish in the air, are very soluble in water, and also in acetic 

 acid, alkalies, and nitric acid. Those found by me in the blood of the 

 Dog resisted the action of water, but I do not think that they were of 

 a different nature, and I should be inclined to refer this difference to 

 the greater resistance of the blood-globules themselves. Funke believes 

 that they consist of the albuminous contents of the blood-cells in com- 

 bination with hematin, relying, for support to this opinion, especially 

 upon their numbers, their occurrence in blood-cells, their formation, as 

 observed by him, from aggregations of blood-cells, and their absence 

 from the serum of the blood ; but I cannot regard this hypothesis as at 



* [Also to Funke in " Schmidt's Jahrbiicher" No. IX. p. 1, and in his Atlas of Patholo- 

 gical Chemistry, Leipsic, 1853; Robin and Verdeil " Traite de Chemie Anatomique," torn. 

 III. p. 430 ; Kunde " Ueber Krystall-bilding in Blute"' in " Henleu. Pfeufer's Zeitschrifr,'' II. p. 

 271, 1852, and in Memoires de la Societe de Biologie," IV. 1852; Parker ' Med. Times and 

 Gazette," 1852; Lehmanii " Bericht d. Konigl. sach. Gesellschaft der Wiss," Leipzig, 1853, 

 and in 2d Ed. of his " Physiologische Chemie," Bd. II. p. 151 ; L. Teichmann, " Ueber die 

 Krystallization der organischen Bestandtheile des Bluts," in Zeitschrift fur. rat. Med. Bd. 

 III. H. 3. This last-named writer describes crystals procured from dried blood, differing 

 in form from the ordinary blood-crystals, and for which he proposes the name of "hamin 

 crystals." DaC.] 



