188 



Some time after these changes the corpuscles discharge molecular 

 particles, and emit tails or filaments, which, separating from the 

 corpuscles, materially alter the transparency and aspect of the 

 fluid. 



" The first alteration of the fluid element of the blood that, 

 namely, produced by the addition of the extraneous fluid causes no 

 visible troubling or change in it ; but the second alteration, which 

 consists in the appearance of a great number of molecular particles, 

 is visibly produced by the agency of the corpuscles. The molecular 

 particles are seen coming out of the corpuscles, separating from them, 

 and disturbing the transparency of the fluid." 



In corroboration of his opinion that the filaments and molecules 

 are emitted from the blood-corpuscles, and not produced by a preci- 

 pitation or solidification of coagulable matter in the plasma, the 

 author especially draws attention to the fact that, so far as he ob- 

 served, the molecules appear only in those parts of the fluid where 

 the corpuscles have been altered and are fringed with similar mole- 

 cules, or emitting tails ; whilst in other parts, where such changes 

 are not occurring in the corpuscles, the fluid is perfectly clear, and 

 free from molecules. Moreover, the emission of tails and molecules 

 is not the result of a breaking up of the corpuscles ; for many of the 

 latter may be seen emitting long tails without any alteration of their 

 natural form ; and although no doubt the corpuscles are finally broken 

 up, this process does not take place sooner in those with tails than 

 in those which have none. 



In connexion with his present observations, the author relates 

 two cases of febrile and inflammatory disease (already reported by 

 him in the ' London Medical Gazette ' some years since), in which 

 molecular matter existed abundantly in the liquid part of the blood. 

 The molecules in these cases, as in his present experiments, he be- 

 lieves to have proceeded from the blood-corpuscles, and likewise 

 through the operation of some abnormal influence, which, however, 

 must have acted upon the corpuscles during their circulation in the 

 living body. 



The author next refers to certain inferences from the foregoing 

 observations calculated to elucidate questions in pathology and 

 practical medicine, which, however, he has already made known in 

 his Gulstonian Lectures. 



