GRADUAL DESTRUCTION OP BLOOD-CELLS. 127 



truly called. That this is one of their duties has been proved experi- 

 mentally, for a solution of albumen or the serum has but little power of 

 absorbing oxygen, scarcely exceeding water itself in that respect, but 

 the discs condense it at once. The change of color they exhibit as they 

 alternately gain or lose that element, is in itself a proof of this fact, as 

 is also the action of serum or blood-discs respectively on a measured 

 volume of air contained in a jar. If the discs be in the venous or pur- 

 ple condition, they quickly absorb oxygen from the confined air, which 

 therefore at once diminishes in amount, but the serum, or a solution of 

 albumen, produces no such effect. The plasma serves, therefore, for the 

 general nutrition of the system, and the discs, by transferring oxygen 

 from point to point, discharge that part of their duty which is connect- 

 ed with the production of heat. 



But the discs, though of a flattened form, are truly cells, and all that 

 obtains in the case of cell life and cell action obtains for , 



Transitory du- 



them. They have not a duration at all comparable to the ration of the 

 duration of the system, but are constantly coming into ex- cells * 

 istence and disappearing. Each is an individual having its own partic- 

 ular history, its time of birth, its time of maturity, its time of death. 

 Each passes through a series of incidents proper to itself. Originating 

 as has been described, they grow at the expense of the plasma, and in 

 this regard it serves for their nutrition as well as for that of the body 

 generally. 



On exposing blood-cells to oxygen and carbonic acid gases alternately, 

 there is not only a change in their shape, which becomes corrugated and 

 star-like, but also in their chemical constitution, so that, after such an 

 exposure of nine or ten times, they are entirely destroyed. Such alter- 

 nations occurring in the system doubtless lead to the same result, though 

 more slowly, since the oxygen is presented in a diluted condition. 



The corrugated and star-like blood-cells abound in the blood of the 

 portal, though not in that of the hepatic vein. If their aspect 

 arises from their tendency to disintegration, this is no more ym 



than might be expected in view of the func- 

 tions of the liver. That the stellated aspect 

 is an indication of a commencing disorganiza- 

 tion, or other profound change, may be illus- 

 trated by an examination of the action of wa- 

 ter on normal blood-cells, which, if they be 

 exposed to that liquid, undergo a distention ; 

 their thicknels increasing more rapidly than 

 their diameter, they lose their concavity, be- 

 come convex, and at last appear as spheres 



Stellated blollsagnified 500 Qf fl ^ ^ thaR ^ original <J iscs . 





