70 STRUCTURE OF COLORED BLOOD- CORPUSCLES. 



giving an appearance of unevenness to the outer boundary, as 

 though it were constituted by a wreath of beads, each bead sepa- 

 rated from its neighbors on the string or, far more frequently, 

 with terminal points lost in an encircling band of a uniform 

 thickness, often greater than either the interior threads or most 

 points of intersection. From this appearance, as well as that of 

 the so-called " ghosts," to be presently described, it is not to be 

 wondered at that careful observers have ascribed to colored blood- 

 corpuscles the possession of an investing membrane. 



As the " paling' 7 progresses, an increasing number of cor- 

 puscles show the interior net- work, essentially as I have just 

 described, and identical in construction with 

 the net-work discovered by C. Heitzmann 

 in amoeba?, colorless blood-corpuscles, and 

 other living matter of the body, a discovery 

 which I communicated to the American 

 Medical Association more than three years 

 ago. 



Gradually an interior net- work structure 

 becomes visible in nearly all the corpuscles 

 in the field, except the smallest, which appear 

 more or less compact; and occasionally a 

 APPROPRIATE So- corpuscle is met with having a central, or 

 LUTION OF BICHRO- slightly eccentric, dot of such relatively large 

 size that it might be interpreted as a nucleus. 

 Some movement takes place in the net- work j 

 for sometimes the threads change in length, 

 regularly Amassed ^natter, and perhaps in thickness, and the dots change 

 their position and their size. 



In the course of another half -hour or hour, 

 the net-work becomes less distinct in the 

 palest corpuscles ; and in these gradually 

 fades away. Then, for some time, the net- 

 work remains visible in nearly all corpuscles 



FIG. 26. THE FINAL 

 PHASES OF COLORED 

 BLOOD - CORPUSCLES 

 TREATED WITH AN 



MATE OF POTASH. 



In the upper left-hand 

 figure there is a double- 

 contoured ring, with ir 



showing traces of a net- 

 work; in the lower right- 

 hand figure this is less 

 distinct; and in the two 

 lower left-hand figures are 



-I "t^e 



there is detritus i. e., two 

 or three detached por- 

 tions; and to the right- 

 hand upper figure there is except those that are too pale or too small: 



attached a mass ivhich has 



apparently been extruded, vacuoles, one or more, appear in many of 

 the latter ; while the former occasionally 

 show indications of irregularly massed matter in their interior, 

 though usually nothing is seen of them but double-contoured 

 rings which have been called their " ghosts" (see Fig. 26). 

 During this time, also, a quantity, sometimes rather large, of 

 detritus accumulates. 



