220 • DR. MARTIN BARRY ON THE CORPUSCLES OF THE BLOOD. 



form in their cytoblastema. Their formation appears, according to the observations 

 of H. Wood, to take place first at the surface of the granulations-}-." 



99. The latest published view I am acquainted with, as to the mode of origin of 

 pus and mucus-globules, is that of Dr. MandlJ, with whom it appears to have been 

 a principal object to point out the relation between these globules and the blood. 

 This author considers the globules of pus and mucus as identical ; but that they can 

 by no means be regarded as altered corpuscles of the blood ; for he supposes that 

 the latter, by contact with pus, are dissolved. As to the nature of the globules of 

 pus and mucus, he states them to be " fibrinous globules," such as those which he 

 was the first to describe. He thinks that the blood passes through the walls of its 

 vessels, with all its elements except the corpuscles, which cannot be thus transuded ; 

 and that the liquor sanguinis which contains the fibrin in solution, thus placed out 

 of the circulation, gives origin to a coagulation of the fibrin ; and, as the serum 

 itself transudes only drop by drop, it is in drops that the fibrin coagulates ; thus 

 forming the corpuscles known by the name of globules of pus, mucus, &c.§. 



100. The following are my own observations on this subject ; altogether differing, 

 it will be seen, from those just referred to. 



101. Fig. 63. represents objects seen in fluid of a blood-red colour||, from an abscess 

 in the human subject, to which fluid no addition had been made. The field of view 

 was occupied by myriads of young blood-corpuscles, among which were seen all the 

 states represented in this figure. Proceeding through the figure in the order in which 

 the objects are alphabetically lettered, we find the corpuscle of the blood — known to 

 be discoid in its form — gradually assuming an orange shape, and finally becoming 

 globular. Then, however, it is not the entire corpuscle, but the enlarged nucleus of 

 the same. In the situation of the depression in the original blood-disc, there is now 

 seen a pellucid orifice (a). This orifice appears to be at first round. It either con- 

 tinues of this form, — or it elongates, — or becomes triangulares). A reddish sub- 

 stance, stretching across the orifice, divides it, when elongated into two, and when 

 triangular into three orifices (7). The intervening substance seems to become more 

 consistent {h) ; many minuter orifices come into view, — apparently the pellucid centres 

 of as many discs, the outlines of which discs are hidden by red colouring matter (g) ; 

 and, finally, on the extreme right in the figure, we have the formed pus-globule (Q. 



102. From this observation, with others, I am induced to believe that the pus- 

 globule is the altered nucleus of a corpuscle of the blood. 



103. The microscopical appearance of pus-globules is pretty generally known. 

 Dr. VoGEL gave me drawings of them, accompanied by a description, from his own 

 observations, in 1837; and I have not seen them more accurately delineated or de- 

 scribed by any subsequent observer. "They are uneven at the surface," says Dr. 



t Schwann, /. c, p. 79. J Gazette Medicale de Paris, 4 Juillet, 1840. § L. c, p. 419. 



I! Furnished by my friend William Marten Cooke, M.B. 



