INCREASE OF BLOOD BIOPLASTS. 



contents then very closely resemble those of an animal 

 during the early period of its development. This 

 state of things always exists in inflammation, and the 

 multiplication of the bioplasts often proceeds to a 

 wonderful extent. The appearances seen are cer- 

 tainly not due simply to the accumulation of white 

 blood-corpuscles, as some have held, but only in part 

 to this, and mainly, as I pointed out many years ago, 

 to their actual growth and increase. " If in any capil- 

 laries of the body the circulation is retarded from any 

 cause, an increase in the white blood-corpuscles in- 

 variably takes place. In congestion and inflammation 

 of the vessels of the frog's foot, the number of the 

 white blood-corpuscles soon becomes so great as to 

 impede and ultimately to stop the circulation through 

 the vessel. Although the great majority are merely 

 corpuscles that have been retarded in their passage, 

 there can be little doubt that the corpuscles actually 

 multiply in number in the clot that is formed."* In 

 Fig. 51, plate XIV, p. 128, a very small vein with two 

 capillaries from the frog's foot a few hours after inflam- 

 mation had commenced, is represented under a magni- 

 fying power of 215 diameters. The white blood- 

 corpuscles form a thick layer all round the vessel, 

 the circulation had quite ceased, and the entire tube 

 would soon have been entirely occupied by white 

 blood-corpuscles. The little capillaries are quite 



* "On the Germinal Matter of the Blood, with Remarks upon the 

 Formation of Fibrin," December Qth, 1863, 'Trans, of the Mic. Soc.' 



