44 DESTRUCTION OF RED BLOOD-CORPUSCLES. 



disintegration of erythrocytes. These are the blood-corpuscle-con- 

 taining cells described in connection with the spleen. The investigations 

 of Quincke have rendered it probable that the red blood-corpuscles 

 whose span of life may cover more than three or four weeks if they 

 are to be eliminated are taken up by the white blood-corpuscles of the 

 liver-capillaries and by perhaps identical cells of the splenic pulp and 

 of the bone-marrow, and preferably deposited in the liver-capillaries, 

 the spleen, and the bone-marrow. The erythrocytes taken up are, 

 without having previously been dissolved, converted in part into yellow 

 and in part into colorless iron-albuminates, hematosiderin, which can 

 be demonstrated microchemically in part in granular, in part in soluble 

 form, giving rise to a greenish discoloration on addition of ammonium 

 sulphid. In the spleen and in the bone-marrow, in part perhaps also in 

 the liver, these are again employed for the regeneration of red blood-cor- 

 puscles, while another portion of the iron is eliminated through the liver. 



Latschenberger has found pigmented and colorless plates in the blood, the 

 latter at times in flakes of fibrin, and these he considers as the terminal prod- 

 ucts of the disintegration of all morphological blood-elements. The pigmented 

 plates are derived from the erythrocytes and exhibit in part the iron-reaction of 

 hematosiderin, and in part that of biliary coloring-matter. These plates are 

 retained and further transformed in the spleen and in the bone-marrow. 



As a sign of the degeneration of the erythrocytes that may precede their 

 death Ehrlich mentions their property of staining violet with eosin-hematoxylin 

 or blue with methylene-blue. The rarity with which cells containing blood-cor- 

 puscles are found in the general circulation justifies the conclusion that corpuscles 

 are taken up within the spleen, the liver, and the bone-marrow, being favored by 

 the slowness of the circulation in these parts. 



Pathological. Among pathological conditions there may be quantitative dis- 

 turbances in the processes of blood-destruction and blood-formation. Accumula- 

 tion of iron-containing materials from red blood-corpuscles may take place in the 

 spleen, the bone-marrow, and the liver-capillaries: (i) if the destruction of red 

 blood-corpuscles is increased, as, for instance, in cases of anemia; (2) if the for- 

 mation of new red elements from old material is retarded. If elimination through 

 the liver-cells is interfered with, the iron accumulates in them, and it is then 

 present in the blood-plasma also in increased amount, and it may be eliminated 

 by other glands, although a deposit of iron may take place in these (cortex of the 

 kidney, pancreas) within the glandular cells and in the tissue-elements of other 

 organs. 



After abundant regeneration of blood in dogs the leukocytes of the liver- 

 capillaries are in the course of four weeks enormously rich in iron-containing 

 granules; likewise the cells of the spleen, of the bone-marrow, of the lymphatic 



lands, further the liver-cells and the epithelium of the cortex of the kidney. 

 he iron-reaction in the two situations last named takes place also after intro- 

 duction of hemoglobin or of iron-salts into the blood. 



Within thrombi and also in extravasations of blood that diffuse into the sur- 

 rounding living tissue hematosiderin likewise develops, in addition to hematoidin, 

 which forms when not in contact with the tissues. The stage of iron-reaction of 

 the products of the disintegration of the erythrocytes is, however, not of con- 

 sequence, as in the progress of time the residuum no longer exhibits this reaction. 



V. Recklinghausen designates as hemochromatosis a brownish discoloration of 

 the tissues dependent upon abnormal dissolution of erythrocytes or local extrava- 

 sations of blood, and which is caused by the iron-containing hematosiderin and 

 the iron-free hemofuscin derived from it. Landois observed these conditions after 

 extensive transfusion. 



If it be remembered that after repeated copious loss of blood and 

 after every menstruation the blood is regenerated within a relatively 

 short period of time, it is evident that an active process of regeneration 

 must take place. As to the amount of corpuscles destroyed daily the 

 amount of biliary and urinary pigment formed from the blood coloring- 

 matter affords some idea. 



