STEUCTUEE OF COLOEED BLOOD- CORPUSCLES. 77 



large as the normal ones, in conditions of the body accompanied with high 

 fever, especially in infectious diseases. 



Hayem has come to the conclusion* that in anaemia the blood-corpuscles 

 are in general smaller than in normal conditions ; but that the extremes 

 which are met with are greater, viz. : .0022 and .010 to .014 mm. 



Piper found in a case of " ulcerated scrotum and inflamed testicle, with 

 apparently tuberculous deposit in the gland," on one and the same slide, 

 specimens which measured ^<f 8 s- of an inch ; while on other parts of the same 

 slide alike extensive fields of corpuscles which measured only a fraction less 

 than the classic ^YOTT f an inch.t 



Ponfick,t Osier, $ and Obermeier|| have reported other abnormities.] 



According to Richardson, 1[ the variations above and below the standard 

 size of corpuscles from any particular animal are comparatively slight in fresh 

 blood, as proved by the following experiments, made with his -jV inch 

 objective, which gives with the micrometer eye-piece an amplification of 

 3700 diameters. When thus magnified, the human red blood-disks appeared 

 about an inch and one-eighth in diameter, so that even slight differences in 

 their size could be accurately measured. Among one hundred red corpuscles 

 freshly drawn from five different persons, the maximum and minimum diam- 

 eters in parts of an inch were as follows : 



Twenty from a white male aged 30, maximum 1-3231, minimum 1-3500 

 " * " " " " 38, " 1-3281, " 1-3529 



" " " female " 44, " 1-3249, " 1-3500 



" " an African " " 50, " 1-3182, " 1-3559 



" " a white male " 8, " 1-3231, 1-3500 



Moreover, the smallest red disks of man, as usually met with in mechani- 

 cally unaltered blood, whether dry or moist, are, according to him, larger than 

 the largest corpuscles of an ox, and a fortiori of a sheep. 



More recently,** he measured corpuscles of individuals of fourteen different 

 nations, one hundred of each. Of the 1400 corpuscles measured, the average 

 was 3^-4 (.007878 mm.), the maximum irrVr* and the minimum 4 -^ of an 

 inch ; 1158, or 83 per cent., measured between ^^ and ^^ of an inch in 

 diameter, and consequently under a power of two hundred would appear 

 about the same magnitude ; the total number of corpuscles of minimum 

 measure was only six, or less than one-half of one per cent. ; and the total 

 number which measured the maximum was ten, or less than one per cent. 



* " Des Caracteres Auatomiques du Sang clans les Anemies." Coinptes Kemlus, tome 83 

 (1876), pp. 82, 85, p. 152, p. 230. 



t " Contraction of Blood-corpuscles through the action of Cold." New York Medical 

 Journal, March, 1877, p. 246. 



t " Ueber das Vorkonimeii abnormer Zelleii im Blute von Recurrenskrauken." Central- 

 blatt f. d. med. Wiss., 1874, No. 25. 



2 " An Account of Certain Organisms occurring in the Liquor Sanguinis." Monthly 

 Microscopical Journal, September, 1874, p. 141. 



|| " Vorkomnu-u feiiister, eine Eigenbewegung zeigeuder Faden im Blut von Recur- 

 renskranken." Centralblatt fur die med. Wiss., 1873, No. 10. Confirmed by Laptschinsky. 

 Id., 1875, No. 9, p. 84. 



II " On the Value of High Powers in the Diagnosis of Blood-stains." American Journal of 

 the Medical Sciences, July, 1874; and London Monthly Microscopical Journal, September, 

 1874, p. 135. 



* "On the Identity of the Red Blood-corpuscles in Different Races of Mankind." 

 American Journal of the Medical Sciences, January, 1877, p. 112. 



