STRUCTURE OF COLORED BLOOD-CORPUSCLES. 87 



many red corpuscles what he was inclined to interpret as a central nucleus, in 

 confirmation of the observations of Bottcher.* More recently, Stowell has 

 written a communication to corroborate Bottcher. t And Strieker has ex- 

 pressed the opinion that the nuclei of embryonal colored blood-corpuscles of 

 mammals persist as circular thin disks; he argues that these " disks are so 

 large that the body proper of the corpuscle appears on a surface view as only 

 a narrow zone ; and that, therefore, except with high powers, the exist- 

 ence of a nucleus is easily overlooked ; and he asserts that, by means of 

 objective No. 15, he has in the blood-corpuscles of man, dog, rabbit, and cat 

 seen the nucleus in both surface and profile views, t 



On the other hand, Schmidt and Schweigger-Seidel, who repeated Bott- 

 cher's early methods, using especially chloroform as he had done, failed in 

 finding nuclei, and suspected optical illusion. Klebs contradicted Bottcher's 

 statements as to the presence of nuclei in normal mammalian red blood-cor- 

 puscles ; but described the occurrence of nucleated red corpuscles in blood 

 taken from the corpse of a child who had suffered from leucaemia, agreeing in 

 so far with a like observation of Bottcher. || Brunn said H that he had con- 

 vinced himself that the appearances produced by both of Bottcher's later 

 methods are artificial and optical effects, due to action of the re-agents on the 

 substance of the corpuscles. And, similarly, Eberhardt has come to the 

 conclusion that the remains after the action of different decolorizing re-agents 

 are not nucM, but stromata deprived of coloring matter ; and that a forma- 

 tion unmistakably a nucleus has not yet been demonstrated in adult human 

 and mammalian red blood-corpuscles.** " 



Among other questions as to the red blood-corpuscle stated by Beale,tt he 

 asks: "Is it a living corpuscle that distributes vitality to all parts of the 

 organism, or is it simply a chemical compound which readily absorbs oxygen 

 and carbonic acid gases and certain fluids? Is it composed of formative 

 living matter, or does it consist of matter that is inanimate ? Does it absorb 

 nutrient matter, grow, divide, and thus give rise to other bodies like itself, or 

 does it consist of passive material destitute of these wonderful powers, and 

 about to be dissolved into substances of simple composition and more nearly 

 related to inorganic matter ? n 



He answers the first parts of these interrogatories in the negative, and 

 holds that it is "not living, but results from changes occurring in colorless 

 living matter, just as cuticle, or tendon, or cartilage, or the formed material 

 of the liver-cell, results from changes occurring in the germinal matter of 

 each of these cells." He says: "The colorless corpuscles, and those small 

 corpuscles which are gradually undergoing conversion into red corpuscles, 



* " Bemerkungen iiber die Kerne der rothen Blutkorperchen." Archiv fur Mikrosk. 

 Anatomic, xiii. 2 (1876), p. 392. 



t " Structure of Blood-corpuscles." American Journal of Microscopy and Popular 

 Science, New York, June, 1878, p. 140. 



t " Vorlesungen iiber allgemeine und experimentelle Pathologie." II. Abtheilung. Wien, 

 1878, p. 438. 



" Einige Bemerkungen iiber die rothen Blutkorperchen." Bericht der Konigl. Sach- 

 sischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften, 1867, p. 190. 



|| " Ueber die Kerne uud Scheinkerne der rothen Blutkorperchen der Saugethiere." 

 Virchow's Archiv, vol. xxxviii. (1867), p. 200. 



IT " Ueber die den rothen Blutkorperchen der Saugethiere zugeschriebenen Kerne." 

 Archiv fiir Mikroskopische Anatomie, vol. xiv., Heft 3 (1877), pp. 333-342. 



** " Ueber die Kerne der rothen Blutkorperchen der Saugethiere und des Menschen." 

 Inaugural- Dissertation der medizinischen Fakultat zu Kouigsberg. April, 1877, p. 30. 



ft " Observations upon the Nature of the Bed Blood-corpuscle" ; 1. c., p. 32. 



