210 DR. MARTIN BARRY ON THE CORPUSCLES OF THE BLOOD. 



the more advanced of the objects in this figure, to have arisen from the coalescence 

 of discs such as those represented in the object presenting an earlier state : a view 

 which Schwann does not appear to have taken.) 



84. I have observed, here and there, in blood taken from the liver in the foetus of 

 the Ox, large cells such as those represented in outline in fig. 31. (See the explana- 

 tion of the Plates.) The nuclei of these cells presented a very remarkable appearance. 

 They were composed of transparent discs, having, as viewed in the microscope, that 

 peculiar yellow colour, which seems to characterize the corpuscle of the blood; and 

 which when these corpuscles are accumulated, presents to the naked eye the well- 

 known red. These discs, perhaps in some instances about twelve in number in each 

 nucleus, were elliptical, and exhibited a cavity or depression. They were distinctly 

 unconnected, though in contact, with one another; and seemed on the point of being 

 separated. The figure represents one cell from which they were escaping. 



85. Future observation must determine what these discs really are, I venture to 

 believe it very possible that they represent a state of the corpuscles of the blood. 



86. On a former occasion-f-, I showed that the blood-corpuscles in the embryo are 

 not formed, as supposed by some observers, out of granules of the yelk. The facts 

 recorded in the foregoing memoir leave little doubt, I think, that these corpuscles,— 

 not only in the embryo, but at all periods of life, — are descendants of the two cells 

 constituting the foundation of the new being in the ovum. If so, it is not requisite to 

 seek the origin of these corpuscles in the organized parenchymatous substance of the 

 body, or in the globules of the chyle ; " the only two sources," it has been said, in 

 which it was possible for them to arise. Authors on " cells," regarding the liquor 

 sanguinis as the " cytoblastema," appear inclined to consider the corpuscles of the 

 blood as arising in it, independently of previously existing corpuscles. 



87- Explanation of the Plates. 



PLATE XVII. 



Fig. 23. Man. Blood-corpuscles, after the addition of acetic acid. a. The nucleus 

 consists of two adherent discs. |3. The two discs have separated, and 

 increased in size. y. They exhibit symptoms of division. I. The discs 

 are four in number ; but two of them remain attached, g, s. There exist 

 three separate discs, with indications of a division of some of these discs. 

 ^. The number of discs visible is five. Three of the objects are in this 

 state. ?7. The nucleus is indistinctly seen, from the surrounding discs 

 and red colouring matter having been imperfectly dissolved. 



t On the Corpuscles of the Blood, I. c, par. 11. 



