THE LEUCOCYTES IN ORGANIC FUNCTIONS. 725 



practically a repetition of the process witnessed in the case of 

 the neutrophiles with the exception of the passage through the 

 liver, the basophiles being directly transmitted to the heart, 

 and therefore likewise to the pulmonary lobules. 



Indeed, we find our view that the granules of these cells 

 are myelin amply confirmed in this connection, for, while Len- 

 hartz alludes to the neutrophilic granules found in colorless 

 sputum, and to the fact that the sputum of asthmatics contains 

 "numerous eosinophile and quite numerous basophile leuco- 

 cytes," he also refers, when reviewing the characteristics of 

 the cells observed microscopically in this connection, to cells 

 that "present considerable coarse granulation," and remarks: 

 "Here, however, the spherules show a decidedly dull appear- 

 ance, resembling that seen in crushed nerve-substances. For 

 this reason they were designated by Yirchow as myelin drop- 

 lets'' Moreover, Lenhartz 62 publishes a colored plate, one of 

 the figures of which represents what he terms with E. Wag- 

 ner "heart-lesion cells" found in the lungs. The granules of 

 these, he says, "are similar to myelin, and, occasionally, more 

 refringent than fat." 



Evidently the nervous system is supplied with its myelin 

 precisely as the muscles are supplied with their myosinogen. 

 Kanthack and Hardy state that the coarsely-granular cells are 

 not only rare, but completely absent from the blood, while the 

 finely-granular are relatively rare in the latter except some 

 hours after a meal. "To say that these cells are found in the 

 body only in very small numbers, being confined to the blood 

 and scanty even there," remark these investigators, referring 

 to the finely-granular basophiles, "is probably only equivalent 

 to saying that we are at present very ignorant as to their his- 

 tory, distribution, and significance. However, since we find 

 this cell in the blood, but do not find it either in the coelomic 

 fluid or in the interstitial spaces of the tissues (except, per- 

 haps, in those of the mucous coat of the alimentary canal), we 

 must, until further facts are forthcoming, regard it as the baso- 

 phile cell of the blood." Still, they refer to the coarsely-gran- 

 ular cells as "occurring only in the extravascular spaces" and 

 in the "interstices of the connective tissue." 



62 Lenhartz: "Mikroskopie und Chemie am Krankenbett," 1900. 



