FUNCTIONS OF THE DUCTLESS GLANDS. 465 



granules, grouped in various ways, either centrally heaped together, or forming 

 a crescent, or without particular order, and frequently changing their mode 

 of arrangement. Generally colorless, these cells were sometimes slightly yellow; 

 they appeared to be identical with cells described by Ecker in the spleen-pulp. 



Pigment cells, as described by Ecker and Kb'lliker, were never seen. 



Once only, in many hundred examinations, could Funke find a blood-corpus- 

 cle-holding cells, although he examined more than a hundred drops of blood. 

 As he could often find the cells in the spleen, he suggests two possible reasons 

 for their rare appearance in the splenic venous blood ; either they had become 

 destroyed during the considerable space of time after death which elapsed be- 

 fore he examined the blood, or they are really absent in the blood issuing from 

 the spleen. Funke does not attach much importance to the first suggestion, as, 

 in the venous splenic blood of a dog examined at once after death, he could find 

 none of these cells. He is inclined to adopt the view that the blood-corpuscles 

 are destroyed in the spleen. The single cell seen by him in the venous blood 

 was tolerably large, oblong, transparent, with an evident granular nucleus, and 

 in its centre were three unchanged blood-corpuscles, similar to those external to 

 the cell. 



There were also in the splenic-venous blood of the horse some singular, or, as 

 Funke terms them, "enigmatical bodies," about whose nature he seems very 

 doubtful. These were round or oblong bodies, with defined outlines, slightly 

 granular on the surface, of various sizes, sometimes as large as a starch granule, 

 at other times almost filling the field of view ; they lay in the spaces between 

 the heaps of red corpuscles, or were sometimes enclosed round by these or by 

 white corpuscles, like a ring. Whether they are cells or amorphous heaps, 

 Funke does not know, but inclines to the former opinion. He found them not 

 only in the horse, but in the fresh blood of the dog. 



Besides these forms there were fibrinous flakes. 



The addition of weak acetic acid produced the following changes. Some red 

 corpuscles were entirely destroyed; others smaller and less deep-colored were 

 not affected, as Gerlach has also noticed the white corpuscles were made quite 

 hyaline, but the outer wall was not destroyed for a long time ; the nuclei were 

 brought clearly into view, were spheres or ellipses, eccentric, faintly spotted, 

 and usually single, or less commonly double or treble. The granular cells 

 were made hyaline, and dissolved slowly; the granules appeared at first to 

 Funke to be unaffected, but more accurate observations taught him that they 

 also dissolved ; and, therefore, in spite of their remarkable resemblance, they 

 were not fat. The peculiar round enigmatical bodies were unaffected by the 

 acid. 



The effect of water on the splenic venous blood was most remarkable. If a 

 drop of blood is placed on the object-glass, and allowed somewhat to dry, and 

 then if water is added, the following changes occur for some time the blood- 

 corpuscles diminish, become indented, then oblong and linear, and at last take 

 the form of little rods, so to call them ; these extend in length and form at length 

 prismatic needle-like crystals crossing the field in all directions, and interlacing. 

 This process is so rapid that it is difficult to observe that these crystals really 

 form out of the blood-corpuscles. (" Aus den Blutkorperchen selbst Entstehen.") 

 These crystals were red colored ; their exact crystalline form could not be accu- 

 rately determined ; but they appeared, in some cases, certainly to be six-sided 

 prisms, with dihedral apices. Besides these crystals, there was another form, 

 consisting of rhombic tables, like cholesterine, and of various sizes. Many of 

 the blood-corpuscles remained unchanged. 



The needle-form and prismatic crystals sometimes appeared, though in im- 

 perfect forms, by simple drying of the splenic blood, without the addition of any 

 30 



