.178 Royal Societij. 



" Dr. Barry cannot, I feel convinced, imagine that I am ex- 

 ceeding the bounds of propriety in publicly noticing what he was 

 kind enough to show me in private. Feeling assm-ed that his 

 object is no other than the advancement of science, I can only 

 say that I have no other motive ; but advance these objections to 

 his views with the idea that it is the duty of every one who has 

 the opportunity to throw his mite into the common heap ; and 

 that the opposition of any theory will either bring forward evi- 

 dence explaining the difficulties, and thus fixing truth on an 

 immoveable basis; or bring up some new views, by means of 

 which the old difficulty will be solved, and the same truth irre- 

 sistibly founded." 



9 St. John's Square, April 1843. 



PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 



ROYAL SOCIETY. 



December 8, 1842. — The following papers were read, viz.: — 

 " Observations on the Blood-corpuscles, particularly with refer- 

 ence to opinions expressed and conclusions drawn in papers ' On 

 the Corpuscles of the Blood,' and ' On Fibre,' recently published 

 in the Philosophical Transactions." By T. Wharton Jones, Esq., 

 F.R.S. 



The author points out what he considers to be important errors in 

 the series of papers by Dr. Martin Barry, which have lately appeared 

 in the Philosophical Transactions, and are entitled, " On the Corpus- 

 cles of the Blood," and " On Fibre." He alleges that Dr. Barry has 

 generally confounded the colourless corpuscles contained in the blood 

 with the red corpuscles of the same fluid ; each of which latter kind 

 consists of a vesicle or cell, with thick walls, but in a collapsed and 

 flattened state, and having therefore a biconcave form, and in con- 

 sequence of its thick wall being doubled on itself, presenting under 

 the microscope a broad circumferential ring, which is illuminated 

 or shaded differently from the depressed central portion, according 

 to the focal adjustment of the instrument : while the colourless 

 corpuscles, on the other hand, are of a globular shape, strongly 

 refractive of light, and granulated on their surface, and are of less 

 specific gravity and of somewhat larger size than the red corpuscles. 

 The author quotes various passages from Dr. Barry's papers in proof 

 of his assertions, and refers particularly to fig. 23 of his second 

 paper on the corpuscles of the blood. He farther states, that Dr. 

 Barry's description of the appearances of what he terms the red 

 corpuscles, in paragraphs 53, 68, and 76 of his second paper, can, 

 in fact, apply only to the colourless corpuscles : and he observes, 

 that even when Dr. Barry does, at last, in his " Additional Observa- 

 tions," advert to the distinction between the red and the colourless 

 globules, he considers the latter as being merely " the discs" con- 

 tained in the red globules appearing under an altered state. 



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