82 STEUCTUEE OF COLORED BLOOD-CORPUSCLES. 



H. Schultz, who, however, has only repeated and confirmed * the experiments 

 of Hewson. 



Although not accepted without some opposition, it was not until the year 

 1861 that the existence of a cell- wall was positively denied. Beale declared : t 

 " I have never succeeded in seeing the cell-wall said to exist, neither have I 

 been able to confirm the oft-repeated assertions with regard to the passage of 

 liquid into the interior of the corpuscle by endosmose, its bursting, and the 

 escape of its contents through the ruptured cell-wall. When placed in some 

 liquids, many of the corpuscles swell up and disappear ; but I have never seen 

 the ruptured cell- walls." He also published observations which he considered 

 " fatal to the hypothesis that each corpuscle is composed of a closed membrane 

 with fluid contents." t Briicke expressed the opinion that the rolling around 

 of the nucleus is illusory, that other phenomena do not conclusively prove the 

 presence of a membrane, and that " the unanimity with which the vesicular 

 nature of blood-corpuscles had for a long time been taught was owing more 

 to the silence of the opponents than to the force of the arguments of the 

 believers." $ Vintschgau|| and RollettH" also argued against the existence of 

 an investing membrane ; and the opinion seemed doomed. 



But before the end of the year in which Beale and Briicke contested the 

 existence of an investing membrane, Hensen defended it. ** He reports 

 having observed in the blood of frogs, both in fresh preparations i. e., in red 

 corpuscles examined without the addition of any re-agent and in corpuscles 

 placed in various mixtures, especially a solution of sugar, that sometimes the 

 membrane, as a distinct outer contour, is lifted up from the interior contents 

 at one or more points of the circumference, these interior contents being 

 retracted more or less densely upon the nucleus. A few years later, tt Hensen 

 reiterated his conviction as to the presence of a membrane ; it is certain, 

 therefore, that Lankester ft has misapprehended his meaning. Kolliker, who 

 had previously asserted that the red blood-corpuscle possesses ' ' a very 

 delicate but nevertheless tolerably firm and at the same time elastic colorless 

 cell-membrane, composed of a protein substance closely allied to fibrin," 

 continued to uphold their vesicular constitution. |||| Preyer reported that the 



* " Das System der Circulation." Stuttgart and Tubingen, 1836, p. 19, et seq. 



t " Lectures on the Structiare and Growth of the Tissues of the Human Body. Delivered at 

 the Royal College of Physicians. Lecture III., April 22, 1861." Archives of Medicine, vol. ii., 

 No. 8 (May, 1861), p. 236. Republished in Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, 

 vol. i., N. S. (April-May, 1861), p. 240. 



t " Observations upon the Nature of the Red Blood-corpuscle." Transactions of the Micro- 

 scopical Society, vol. xii., N. S., p. 37. Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, Jan., 1864. 



" Die Elementarorganismen." Sitzungsberichte der Wiener Akademie, vol. xliv., Div. u., 

 p. 389 (read Oct. 17, 1861). 



|| " Sopra i Corpusculi Sanguigni della Rana." Atti del Institute Veneto, vol. viii., Ser. ill. 



IT " Versuche und Beobachtungen am Blute." Sitzungsberichte der Wiener Akademie, 

 vol. xlvi. (1862), p. 65. 



** " Untersuchungen zur Physiologie der Blutkorperchen sowie iiber die Zellennatur 

 derselben." Zeitschrift fur wissenschaftliche Zoologie, vol. xi., Heft 3 (Ausgegeben Dec. 

 23, 1861), pp. 253-278. 



tt In a foot-note of an article entitled " Ueber das Auge einiger Cephalopoden." ttid., 

 vol. xv., Heft 2 (April 1, 1865), p. 170. 



it Laukestcr, in las article on the red blood-corpuscle, in the Quarterly Journal of 

 Microscopical Science, October, 1871, already cited, says, p. 366, that Hensen " distinguishes 

 a layer of fluid protoplasm surrounding the coloring matter, by cadaveric alteration of which 

 he believes the supposed membrane of the corpuscle to be formed." 



" Manual of Human Histology." Translated and edited by George Busk and Thomas. 

 Huxley, London, Sydenham Society, 1854, vol. ii., p. 326. 



till Handbuch der Gewebclehre, 1863, p. 627. 



