conseqiient upon Inflammations of acute local Character. 205 



The duration of the period of extreme poverty of the blood in 

 this cell has varied in my observations between 18 hours and 6 days. 

 In prolonged inflammation they may probably be scanty for much 

 longer periods. 



The degree of numerical elimination of the cell is illustrated by the 

 following reckoning. In one experiment the cells fell from 13 per 

 cent, of all leucocytes to less than 1 per 100 in the course of 12 

 hours. The animal was a large cat. Steinberg estimates the blood 

 in the cat at 9 per cent, of the body weight ; the animal weighed a 

 little over 4 kilo. This would give 360 c.c. blood. In each mm. of 

 blood there were at beginning of experiment about 15,300 leucocytes 

 or 1,200 of the coarsely granular kind, making a total of 432 millions 

 of the coarsely granulate in the circulation. Nine hours later no 

 coarsely granular were found in the specimens examined on either of 

 the two Thoma-Zeiss counters, nor were any found in several cover- 

 glass preparations, but in specimens of blood centrifuged two of 

 the cells were found in films of leucocytes from the leucocytic layer. 

 In counting at random through these films 10,000 leucocytes were 

 met with without meeting one coarsely granular cell. Allowing, 

 however, that one existed for every 12,000 of the leucocytes, and 

 knowing that the number of leucocytes had then risen to 36,100 per 

 mm. of blood, the number of coarsely granular leucocytes in the cir- 

 culation may be estimated at 1,080,000. On this calculation more 

 than 400 millions of them had been withdrawn from the circulating 

 blood in the course of nine hours. In the above example no allow- 

 ance is made for the diminution in volume of the total blood (the 

 specific gravity had increased from 1'056 to 1'061) which must have 

 occurred but cannot have amounted to many c.c. The example is an 

 extreme one, because the original percentage of these cells in the blood 

 was high. But it gives an idea of the degree of impoverishment of the 

 blood in these cells, and of the rate of their withdrawal (average rate 

 of more than half a million per minute) from the general circulation. 

 I detect at present no clear relation between the diminution of the 

 number of coarsely granular leucocytes and the apoplasmia of the 

 blood. When the apoplasmia developed late (ligation experiments) 

 the withdrawal of coarsely granular leucocytes seemed hardly de- 

 ferred. In the three experiments on the lung and pleural cavity 

 apoplasmia was not produced, but the numerical reduction of the 

 coarsely granular cells, though not so marked as usual, was unmis- 

 takable. 



Under certain conditions, other than the above experimental ones, 

 I have found the blood to contain very few coarsely granular leuco- 

 cytes. I have already noted that fasting does not appear to decrease 

 the number of them, but appears rather to increase it. At the same 

 time, if prolonged to starvation point, faating certainly appears to 



