718 INTERNAL SECRETIONS AND PRESERVATION OF LIFE. 



the guinea-pig and rabbit might, with equal justice, be desig- 

 nated the explosive cells of those animals." A familiar histo- 

 logical fact will -'suggest the relationship between such a cell 

 and the oxidizing substance. Berdal, 51 quoting Ranvier, says: 

 "The action of oxygen or of the air may be observed in an 

 extremely simple way: A lymph preparation which has served 

 for the examination of amoeboid movements is carefully sur- 

 rounded with paraffin and set aside for thirty-six hours. If, 

 at the end of that time, the lymphatic cells are examined, all 

 will be seen to have reassumed the spherical form and to no 

 longer project pseudopodia. Eemoval of the paraffin and rais- 

 ing of the disk so as to admit a small quantity of air will suffice 

 to cause the amoeboid motion to recur." The explosive nature 

 of the coarsely-granular basophile cell can only be due to the 

 one cause: the presence of large proportion of phosphorus, 

 both in its nuclein and granules. 



In their paper upon the free granules derived from leuco- 

 cytes Stokes and Wegefarth review the investigations of H. F. 

 Miiller, of NothnageFs clinic. 52 This observer found them both 

 in diseased and normal blood, and describes them as "highly 

 refractive, round or dumb-bell shaped bodies, which show a 

 dancing, molecular movement, but no independent motion." 

 When mounted in 1-per-cent. osmic acid "the reaction for fat 

 does not occur," nor can they be dissolved by acetic acid or 

 ether. An important feature in connection with our inquiry is 

 that Miiller is recorded as stating that "he does not consider 

 them as Ehrlich's neutrophilic granules escaped from leuco- 

 cytes" and that "the neutrophilic granules are dissolved by 

 dilute acetic acid, while the bodies which he has studied are not 

 dissolved by this acid." This is in perfect accord with the 

 chemical analyses of Milroy and Malcolm, who found that acids 

 dissolved eosinophile granules, and with the observations of 

 Lenhartz in respect to those found in sputum. Stokes and 

 Wegefarth further emphasize the dissimilarity of basophiles 

 from acidophiles in general, as viewed from our standpoint, 

 when they say, doubtless referring to Ranvier's interpretation 

 of the purpose of the granules of white globules: "They are 



Berdal: Loc. cit., p. 275. 



"H. F. Miiller: Centralbl. fiir allg. Path. u. path. Anat., vol. viil, 1896. 



