WHEN MATURE 57 



supplies the suggestion that the granules in the 

 granular cells increase in number under the 

 influence of the auxetic. Instead of the normal 

 scattered granules in 1 per cent of the total 

 erythrocytes, 15, 20, or even 30 per cent of the 

 cells may be granular. These individual cells 

 may also vary in anaemic conditions from the 

 normally scattered chromatin to the condition of 

 a mass of packed granules known as the nucleated 

 red blood-corpuscle or erythroblast. At a further 

 stage induced by the auxetic in these highly 

 developed cells a centrosome appears. This is a 

 minute body which is not always easily seen in 

 mammalian blood, but which is readily demon- 

 strated in the corpuscles of birds and reptiles 

 when examined by the jelly method. These 

 centrosomes stain on the death of the cell and 

 differ from the other granules by their pink 

 reaction to azur; while the granules stain a deep 

 blue. 



When division of the highly granular cell 

 occurs the centrosome divides and one half passes 

 towards each pole. In extreme anaemias the centro- 

 somes divide into two, three, four, or six according 

 to the number of daughter cells to be produced. 

 Then the granules separate into masses one for 

 each daughter cell; and lastly the cell itself 

 divides, each daughter cell then passing through 

 the reverse process, the centrosome disappearing, 

 the granules diminishing in numbers, until there 

 remains the normal red blood-corpuscle containing 

 its finely granular cytoplasm and haemoglobin. 

 Such is the process of cell-division in erythrocytes 

 as watched by the jelly method of examination. 



