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XVII. On the Corpuscles of the Blood. — Part III. By Martin Barry, M.D., 



F.R.SS. L. and E. 



Received June 17, — Read June 17, 1841. 



Notwithstanding the great length of time during which the blood has been 

 the subject of physiological research, an eminent anatomist, so late as the year 1838, 

 remarks, that " we have no clear conception of the mode in which the floating cor- 

 puscles of the blood conduce to nourishment-}-." That Professor Weber was not 

 mistaken in coming to such a conclusion, I think will be admitted by every one who 

 takes the pains to consult the records of discovery in this most interesting field of 

 observation. 



I am not aware that, since the period just mentioned, any additional facts have 

 been published, relating to " the mode in which the floating corpuscles of the blood 

 conduce to nourishment," unless my own communications, already presented to the 

 Society J, are to be so regarded, — those communications having reference to the mode 

 of propagation of the floating blood-corpuscle, and to its conversion into two or three 

 kinds of tissues. 



The object of the present memoir is to bring together a large number of observa- 

 tions, made by myself, showing that every structure I have examined arises out of 

 corpuscles having the same appearance as corpuscles of the blood. I may here 

 mention, that the tissues submitted to actual observation, with the result just men- 

 tioned, will be found to include the cellular, nervous, and muscular ; besides carti- 

 lage, the coats of blood-vessels, several membranes, the tables, cells, and cylinders of 

 the epithelium, the pigmentum nigrum, the ciliary processes, the crystalline lens itself, 

 and even the spermatozoon and the ovum. And among the vast number of observa- 

 tions made, I have not been able, with the greatest care, to detect a single fact 

 inconsistent with the conclusion above announced. If that conclusion — which 

 regards the formation of the tissues — be correct, it may, I think, assist us in consi- 

 dering " the mode in which the floating corpuscles of the blood conduce to nourish- 

 ment" during life. 



For the detail of these observations, I shall rely principally upon the drawings, and 

 the minute explanation of them separately given. The perusal of that explanation 

 will, I conceive, be necessary for the understanding of some general remarks I shall 



t E. H. Weber, in Muller's Archiv, 1838, p. 463. 



X On the Corpuscles of the Blood. Philosophical Transactions, 1840, Part II. p. 595 : and Part II. on the 

 same subject, in the present volume, p. 201. 



