THE LEUCOCYTES IN ORGANIC FUNCTIONS. 717 



THE BASOPHILE LEUCOCYTES. These cells show the di- 

 vision into two groups, "finely-granular" and "coarsely-gran- 

 ular/' which characterizes those just reviewed. They seem to 

 differ from the latter in every other way, however, for, while 

 these are amoeboid, basophiles are not considered so by most 

 histologists. Gulland rightly, in our opinion contends that 

 they are, the variations of shape that they show and the man- 

 ner in which they are scattered throughout the body being 

 adduced as main reasons. The nucleus is round, oval, or kid- 

 ney-like; is less clearly differentiated from the cell-substance; 

 and stains with much greater difficulty than that of the neu- 

 trophile. 



As regards their distribution, Ehrlich and Eanvier found 

 them in the peritoneal, pleural, and pericardial cavities, and 

 also in the connective tissue, but, as emphasized by Kanthack 

 and Hardy, the cells in the connective tissue differ somewhat 

 in shape and size from those in the three cavities mentioned. 

 The latter investigators also found the coarsely-granular baso- 

 philes "exceedingly numerous in connective-tissue spaces, where 

 they form sometimes an almost complete sheath for the lymph- 

 capillaries." Their distribution furthermore resembles that of 

 the eosinophiles in the fact that they are relatively very scarce 

 in the blood. 



The chemical characteristics of the basophile granules is 

 suggested by a curious phenomenon which is especially notice- 

 able in animals, and to which Kanthack and Hardy refer in the 

 following words: "The unstable, or explosive nature of the 

 coarsely-granular basophile cells in certain animals is one of 

 their most remarkable characters. In the rat and mouse per- 

 fect preparations of these cells may be very easily made, but 

 in the guinea-pig and rabbit they can be preserved only with 

 the most rapid fixation by heat or absolute alcohol. In these 

 animals the mere exposure of the coelomic fluid to the air, or 

 to contact with a cover-slip for a few seconds, is sufficient to 

 cause their complete disappearance. Cells characterized by 

 great instability have been described elsewhere in astacus 50 as 

 the 'explosive' cell of that animal, and the basophile cells of 



60 Hardy: Journal of Physiology, Noa. 1 and 2, vol. xiii. 



