94 STEUCTUEE OF COLOEED BLOOD-CORPUSCLES. 



envelope and septa or threads passing more or less regularly through the inte- 

 rior, the other being contained between these septa. * 



In the nuclei of colored blood-corpuscles, Biitschli, W. Flemming, and Klein 

 have reported the existence of a net-work, viz. : 



In the nuclei of red blood-corpuscles of frog and newt, Biitschli observed 

 fibrils, with granular thickenings, traversing the nucleus and passing to and 

 connecting with its envelope. t 



Flemming saw a very delicate and dense net-work of fibers pervading the 

 interior of the nucleus, and attached to the nuclear membrane in many so- 

 called cellular elements of the bladder of curarized salamandra maculata. 

 He inferred that the net-work is present also in the nuclei of the red blood- 

 corpuscles, though he did not see it there, t 



Speaking of some capillary blood-vessels of a newt, Klein said: "Some 

 such capillaries contained blood-corpuscles, and the nuclei of these showed a 

 very distinct net-work." Also : " The examination of the nuclei of fresh 

 epithelium of frog, toad, or newt, the nuclei of fresh colored corpuscles of 

 these animals, especially of toad, with a Zeiss's F lens, or a Hartnack's 

 immersion, No. 10, reveals fibrils in the nucleus, and also shows that the 

 ' granules' are due to the twisted or bent condition of them." 



III. 



The method employed in my investigation, viz. : treatment of 

 fresh blood with solution of bichromate of potash, and examina- 

 tion with high magnifying power, has revealed certain appear- 

 ances as the structural arrangements of colored blood-corpuscles. 

 Do these arrangements exist in the living corpuscle, or are they 

 artificial productions of the re-agent ? 



Dilute solutions of bichromate of potash and Miiller's fluid are 

 known as the best preserving media for the most delicate animal 

 structures : nervous tissue, the eye, embryos, etc., are kept in 

 them unchanged for any length of time. In the fecundated 

 chicken-egg of only twenty hours, placed in such a solution, the 

 heart, but just formed, has been known to continue for a time 

 to beat. Rollett has investigated the influence of bichromate of 

 potash on protoplasm, and found that no alterations were pro- 

 duced. In my series of observations, the weakest solutions (ten 

 per cent, saturated solution or less) produced no paling of the 

 colored corpuscles 5 while, on increasing the strength up to a 



* Loc. cit. 



t " Studien liber die ersten Entwickelungsvorgange der Eizelle, die Zelltheiluug und 

 die Conjugation der Infusorien." Abhandlungen der Senckenbergischen Naturforschenden 

 Gesellschaft, vol. x., Heft 3, 4 (1876), p. 260. 



t " Beobachtungen iiber die Beschaffenheit des Zellkernes." Archiv fur Mikroskopisclie 

 Anatomie, vol. xiii. (1876), p. 693 et. scq. 



"Observations on the Structure of Cells and Nuclei." Quarterly Journal of Micro- 

 scopical Science, July, 1878, p. 337. 



|| Ibid., p. 332. 



