^Zoological Society, 41U 



PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Feb. 22, 1848. — Wm. Yarrell, Esq., Vice-President, in the Chair. 



Additional Measurements of the Red Corpuscles of the 

 Blood of Vertebrata. No. 4. By George Gulliver, F.R.S. 



A reference to the preceding numbers of these papers will be found 

 in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society, October 14, 1845, p. 93, 

 where are also tables of my measurements of the blood-corpuscles 

 up to that date, with summary notices of the most remarkable results 

 as to the size of those corpuscles in vertebrate animals. A note con- 

 cerning the size of the blood-corpuscles of Birds is given in the same 

 Proceedings for March 24, 1846: and numerous observations on 

 the size, shape, and structure of the blood-corpuscles of Vertebrata 

 are contained in my Notes to the edition of Hewson's Works, lately 

 printed for the Sydenham Society. 



The following measurements, like all my former ones, are expressed 

 in vulgar fractions of an English inch, and for the sake of brevity, on 

 this occasion the average sizes only are given : L.D. denotes the long 

 diameter and S.D, the short diameter of the corpuscles. A few re- 

 marks may be now added to illustrate the bare figures. 



After my observation (see Dublin Medical Press for November 

 1835. and Proceedings of the Zoological Society, No. CXV. p. 107) 

 of the remarkable minuteness of the red corpuscles of the blood of 

 the Napu Musk Deer, it was to be expected that the corresponding 

 corpuscles in the other species of Moschus would have a similar cha- 

 racter. Accordingly, in Stanley's Musk Deer I found those corpus- 

 cles almost as small ; and in my late measurements, the average of 

 which is now given, of the blood-corpuscles of the Meminna Deer, 

 I could perceive no difference between them and those of the Napu 

 Musk Deer. 



In the books of physiology, before the observations just mentioned, 

 the blood- corpuscles of the Goat used to be described as the smallest 

 in the Mammalia (see Prevost and Dumas ; and Miiller, Physiology, 

 tr. by Dr. Baly, 1838, vol. i. p. 101; Mandl, Anatomic Generale, 

 1843, p. 248); but to the list of animals in which I have already 

 found those corpuscles still smaller, are now to be added the Me- 

 minna and two species of Brocket Deer. 



In the Red Brocket Deer (a female) the majority of the blood- 

 corpuscles were of the spear-shaped, lunated, and sigmoidal forms, 

 described and figured from the blood of some other Cervidce in the 

 Lond. and Edin. Philosophical Magazine, November 1840, p. 329. 

 and noticed in my Appendix to Gerber's Anatomy, p. 11 to 12 : there 

 were also many of the common circular corpuscles. The blood- 

 corpuscles of a new species of Brocket Deer (a male, from Brazil) 

 were of the usual circular shape. In the magazine above-cited it is 

 suggested that those irregular forms may result from changes in the 

 common circular discs ; and this now appears more i)robablc from the 

 Ann, i^ Mag. N. Hid. Scr. 2. Vol. ii. 31 



